Centro de Estudios de Postgrado

UNIVERSIDAD DE JAÉN
Centro de Estudios de Postgrado

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INTERCULTURALITY AND
TEENAGERS: APPROACHING
TEENAGERS’ OWN IDENTITY
THROUGH ENGLISH

Alumno/a: Martínez Cazalilla, María Teresa

Tutor/a: Profª. Dª. Mª del Carmen Méndez García

Dpto: Lengua Extranjera

Octubre, 2015
Abstract
This Master’s thesis deals with some key concepts in the current educational arena,
such as intercultural communicative competence. For this reason, key aspects such as
the relation between language and culture or the influence of stereotypes and
prejudice in today’s society are discussed. This theoretical discussion also sets the
methodological bases of an intercultural approach, which will later on be applied in the
creation of a lesson plan.
International organizations: United Nations or the Council of Europe, consider
intercultural education a tool to fight against some social issues such as racism or
discrimination. This Master’s thesis is set against the backdrop of the
recommendations issued by these organizations.
Key words: culture-language, interculturality, teenagers, identity.
Table of contents
1. Justification ........................................................................................................................... 4
2. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5
3. Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence ........................................................... 6
3.1. Definitions ..................................................................................................................... 6
3.1.1. Culture ................................................................................................................... 6
3.1.2. Multiculturality, pluriculturality and interculturality ............................................ 8
3.1.3. Intercultural communicative competence .......................................................... 10
3.2. Beyond teaching culture ............................................................................................. 13
3.2.1. Language and culture .......................................................................................... 13
3.2.2. The importance of teaching intercultural communicative competence ............ 15
3.3. Implementing an intercultural approach .................................................................... 22
3.3.1. Approaches, goals and contents ......................................................................... 24
3.3.2. Activities .............................................................................................................. 25
3.3.3. Roles .................................................................................................................... 32
3.3.4. Assessment.......................................................................................................... 32
3.4. Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence to deal with adolescence..... 35
3.5. Conclusion. .................................................................................................................. 38
4. The adventure of the coming of age ................................................................................... 39
4.1. Justification ................................................................................................................. 39
4.2. Background information ............................................................................................. 41
4.3. Objectives and key competences................................................................................ 42
4.4. Contents ...................................................................................................................... 43
4.5. Cross-curricular issues................................................................................................. 44
4.6. Interdisciplinarity ........................................................................................................ 44
4.7. Methodology ............................................................................................................... 44
4.7.1. Session 1 – Breaking the ice ................................................................................ 47
4.7.2. Session 2 – What do you do in your free time? .................................................. 52
4.7.3. Session 3–Don’t be a hater ................................................................................. 56
4.7.4. Session 4 – One, two, three, action! ................................................................... 60
4.7.5. Session 5 – My sweet 16 ..................................................................................... 72
 4.7.6. Session 6 – Make a wish! .................................................................................... 73
4.8. Materials ..................................................................................................................... 76
4.9. Attention to diversity .................................................................................................. 76
4.9.1. Possible problems ............................................................................................... 77
4.10. Assessment.............................................................................................................. 78
4.10.1. Evaluation criteria ............................................................................................... 78
4.10.2. Assessment tools................................................................................................. 78
5. References........................................................................................................................... 79
6. Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 83
6.1. Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................. 83
6.2. Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................. 88
 1. Justification
This Master thesis originates in my interest in understanding how students feel
attracted to other cultures and, at the same time, I wonder whether they are aware of
the similarities and differences among teenagers all over the world.

Citizens and, more specifically, teenagers are involved in a globalized world where
the media dominate their life and they have many opportunities to be in contact with
people from many parts of the globe. For this reason, teenagers need training in
reflecting upon culture, which contributes to their understanding of and respect
towards other cultures.

The didactic unit proposed aims to make students aware of the richness of the
innumerable cultures and how much one’s culture influences oneself. Within the
framework of multiculturality and interculturality, different traditions that exist all
over the world when stepping from childhood to adulthood will be explored in the
didactic unit. This fact would help them not only to understand the changes that other
people from other places are experiencing; this will also help them to understand
themselves and the community they are living in.
In intercultural education, learners’ personal development is central inside and
outside the classroom, both in the academic and social context.
 2. Introduction
One of the reasons why learning languages is so widespread is because we live in a
multicultural European society, where people from many different countries coexist.
Some of the reasons to explain this not so new multicultural society are migration,
globalization, media influence, new technologies in communication or the multiple job
and business opportunities people are offered thank to the European Union and
further supranational movements. The fact is that multiculturality is evident in the
classroom, where there are often children or teenagers and teachers from different
origins.

Nowadays, one of the aims of language teaching is to encourage students to

become multilingual; however this is not completely possible if they do not know
about the culture that underlies the languages they are learning. In addition,
multilingualism could not be possible without understanding or experiencing cultural
otherness. Students need to reflect on cultural issues; this reflection would not only be
useful to learn a new language but also to evaluate one’s own everyday patterns such
as how one thinks, feels or behaves, developing a deeper self-knowledge.

Key aspects such as cultural otherness, interculturality, the relation between

language and culture or reasons to develop intercultural communicative competence
in the classroom are discussed in following sections. This is crucial since my objective
throughout this project is to propose a didactic unit that helps teenagers gain self-
knowledge and understand the processes behind the changes they are experiencing
when leaving childhood to become adults. With this aim, learners are invited to
compare their feelings with those of teenagers from different parts of the world going
through the same experience.
 3. Teaching Intercultural Communicative Competence

3.1. Definitions
In the following pages concepts such as culture, multiculturality, pluriculturality
and interculturality, intercultural communicative competence or the relationship
between language and culture are discussed.

3.1.1. Culture

Few experts seem to agree in the definition of ‘culture’. Culture can be studied
from different disciplines or perspectives: anthropology, ethnics, psychology, or
politics. Nevertheless, this project focuses on the definition that encapsulates the
relationship between culture and language.
Stern (1992) establishes two stages: before World War I and after World War II. He
identifies the period before World War I as the moment when, apart from the study of
language, there was a need for the study of other aspects of a country such as its
geography, history, institutions or arts. All these disciplines were put together within
the overarching category of ‘culture’. After World War II, however, the concept of
culture emphasised ‘the way of life or life-style’ of a social group.
In the attempt to delimit the concept of culture, many authors decided to define it
according to two labels ‘Culture with capital C’ and ‘culture with small c’. ‘Culture with
capital C’ or ‘formal culture’ (Stern, 1992) refers to the ‘traditional, elitist view of
culture which concentrates on all products of art and scholarship, including literature,
painting, music, philosophy and so on’. (Neuer, 2012: 20)
On the other hand, ‘culture with small c’ or ‘deep culture’ (Stern, 1992) represents
our costumes, daily life and ‘every day phenomena’. (Neuer, 2012: 20)
However, for Moran (2001) culture is made up of three main components:
products, practices and perspectives.
I define culture as an evolving way of life consisting of shared products, practices and
perspectives of persons within specific social settings and communities. This
conception assumes that culture exists in the material world, that it can be
described, analysed and explained. It also assumes that the overall purpose of culture
learning is to enter another way of life, to form relationships with the people of this
culture, using their language, and to participate with them in the activities if their
daily lives, on their terms.(Moran, 2001: 9)

Moran (2001) upholds that culture may be described depending on five

dimensions: the previous components (products, practices and perspectives) and
persons and communities. Besides, he considers culture is an artefact created by the
humankind to participate actively in a specific way of life.
 Moran (2001) uses a metaphor by Weaver (1993) and Brake’s (1995) to explain
this concept: ‘The iceberg of culture’. If we take in mind the image of an iceberg, we
imagine a huge block of ice under the water with a small top over the surface. The
block of ice under the water represents the portion of culture that is not visible
(beliefs, values and attitudes). The top of the iceberg represents the part of a culture
that is visible (literature, art, or music). ‘Culture with capital C’ is mainly related, albeit
not identical, to the visible portion, whereas ‘culture with small c’ shares elements of
both, the visible and the invisible portion.

Retrieved from Moran (2001: 28)

Therefore, ‘cultural products, practices, persons, communities, and some

perspectives are explicit – visible or tangible – whereas many perspectives are tacit –
invisible or intangible.’ (Moran, 2001: 28)
Other authors, on the contrary, prefer to define culture from a naturalist point of
view: ‘culture refers to what has been grown and gloomed (from Latin colere: to
cultivate)’ Kramsch (1998: 5). Kramsch (1998) uses the metaphor of a rose, which is
beautiful by nature, but that needs some agricultural labour or processes, so that its
essence is extracted. In the process of extraction, however, the rose can lose much of
its exuberance. The same can be said about the process of acculturation that people
undergo. While socializing, people choose from a wide variety of possibilities that
language and culture offer us, but if we want to take the perfume, the essence of
nature, we have to select, among all the possibilities, the one which best fits our
circumstances.
Seelye (1997: 23) proposes a comprehensive definition of culture:
Culture is the systematic, rather arbitrary, more or less coherent, group-invented,
and group-shared creed from the past that defines the shape of “reality”, and assigns
the sense and worth things; it is modified by each generation and in response to
adaptive pressures; it provides the code that tells people how to behave predictably
and acceptably, the cipher that allows them to derive meaning from language and
other symbols, the map that supplies the behavioral options for satisfying human
needs.
 As a conclusion, when speaking about the concept of culture, the following
elements stand out and summarize all the previously discussed aspects:

 It is the opposite of nature because it is ‘invented’ by social groups and

shared among their members to satisfy natural and psychological needs.
 It gives significance to many aspects of human life and sets the rules of life in
society.
 It is dynamic; although the culture of a community is set in the past, it is
continuously changing, adapting to new phenomena, also created by
humans.
Taking all these elements into consideration, many experts affirm that it is
necessary to strive to develop learners’ cultural competence or, as termed in the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001), sociolinguistic
competences, referring to sociocultural conditions or social conventions that affect
communication between speakers of different communities.

3.1.2. Multiculturality, pluriculturality and interculturality

Given the diversity of today’s society, speakers of many languages coexist side by
side due to, for example, migrations. In this context, concepts such as multiculturalism
and pluriculturalism need to be differentiated.
The concept of multiculturalism refers to the idea that, in a given society different
cultures are presented and coexist. The Guide for the Development of Language
Education Policies in Europe (2007: 20) defines it as ‘the presence of several languages
in a given space, independently of those who use’.
On the other hand, the term pluriculturalism makes reference to the competences
required to function within two or more cultures. This idea is implicit in the definition
that the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) uses to
define ‘plurilingual and pluricultural competence’:
The ability to use languages for the purposes of communication and to take part in
intercultural interaction, where a person, viewed as a social agent has proficiency, of
varying degrees, in several languages and experience of several cultures. (2001: 168)

Hence, pluriculturalism alludes to the different identities or practices that a person

has assimilated or the multiple processes of acculturation that a person has
experienced given particular circumstances, which are frequently related to migration.
‘While multiculturalism emphasises the presence of various groups in a community,
pluriculturalism refers to the integration of aspects of the cultures by the individual’.
(Neuer, 2012: 23)
 As the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001: 168)
suggests pluriculturalism ‘is not seen as the superposition or juxtaposition of distinct
competences, but rather as the existence of a complex or even composite competence
on which the user may draw.’ These cultural competences help people to identify
themselves with and participate in multiple cultures.
Nevertheless, as a result of the fast changes that modern societies have
experienced, multiculturalism or pluriculturalism do not encapsulate all the shades
implicit in the interaction between people from different cultures. Different cultures
interact in a context; these interactions prepare the ground to diversity, which is one
of the assumptions of interculturalism. According to Neuer (2012: 24), ‘Interculturalism
emphasises the interactive dimension of groups, and their capacity to build common
projects, to assume shared responsibilities and to create common identities’. The
prefix ‘inter’ gives us the idea of a path between two or more possibilities; it gives me
the idea of hard work to favour communication, tolerance, diversity and exchange of
knowledge. Neuer (2014) also explains that this exchange of knowledge is based on
self-knowledge and other-knowledge.
Multicultural education uses learning about other cultures in order to produce
acceptance, or at least tolerance, of these cultures. Intercultural education aims to
go beyond passive coexistence, to achieve a developing and sustainable way of living
together in multicultural societies through the creation of understanding of, respect
for and dialogue between the different cultural groups”. (UNESCO, 2007: 18, quoted
by Neuer, 2012: 25)

Corbett (2003) upholds that when a foreign language learner deepens in that
language and aims to achieve the cultural goals of the foreign community, they are
immersed in the reflection on their own language and culture. For this reason,
interculturality does not only influence foreign languages and cultures, but also the
individuals’ own perception of his/her language and culture. This new knowledge
should ideally lead to make students become mediators ‘between different social
groups that use different languages and languages varieties’. (Corbett, 2003: 2)
Byram (2002: 9) adds other aspects of the term interculturalism and uses the term
‘intercultural dimension’ to refer to the field that ‘aims to develop learners as
intercultural speakers or mediator who are able to engage with complexity and
multiple identities and to avoid the stereotyping which accompanies perceiving
someone through a single identity.’
Here, there is an opportunity to reject stereotyping to create a fair society with
equal opportunities for everybody. In successive sections, current social issues, such as
prejudice or discrimination are dealt with. Living in a multicultural society, where
cultures coexist without necessarily interacting, is not enough. There is a need to
promote intercultural societies, where empathy towards the other and engagement
with otherness are favoured.
Thus, in an intercultural interaction, one does not respond to other person (or
people) on the basis of their own individual personal characteristics – instead, one
respond to them on the basis of their affiliation to another culture or set of cultures.
(Huber and Reynolds, 2014: 16)

Szende (2014) also underscores the opportunity towards tolerance, cultural

flexibility and better self-awareness that the concept of interculturality brings to the
fore:
The concept of the intercultural refers to any process of interaction between
partners of different cultures during which divergences are recognizes, assumed and
possibly overcome, with the purpose of building together. (Szende, 2014: 34)

From Huber and Reynolds’ quotation as well as from Szende’s words it can be
inferred that in order to live together and to make the most of otherness, dialogue is
necessary. The UNESCO uses the terminology ‘intercultural dialogue’ to make
reference to the assumption that people from different cultures ‘agree to listen to and
understand multiple perspectives, including even those held by groups or individuals
with whom they disagree (2013: 14).The UNESCO asserts that intercultural dialogue
requires ‘readiness to question well-established value-based certainties by bringing
reason, emotion and creativity into play in order to find new shared understanding.’
(2013: 14)
Glaser, Guilherme, Méndez García and Mughan (2007: 38) speak about ‘the
intercultural learner’ who ‘is always between languages and cultures’ and ‘their
interlanguage and interculture’. Interlanguage and interculture may be understood as
components of interculturality when interlanguage is defined as ‘the individuals’
knowledge of the foreign language at a particular stage of development or at
interlocked and different stages of their learning process’ (2007: 36); and interculture
is ‘the individual’s degree of cultural competence’, and ‘this fluctuates between the
native and the target culture and departs from the first culture as their familiarity with
the target culture increases’ (2007: 37). All these concepts are the foundations that
lead to the next key issues in this project.

3.1.3. Intercultural communicative competence

If interculturality might be defined as the stage that society and its members need
to achieve to develop tolerance and respect towards otherness, then intercultural
competence would be the attitudes or skills needed to achieve interculturality. Thus,
intercultural competence is ‘the ability to understand each other across all types of
cultural barriers’. (Huber, 2012: 5)
 Intercultural competence is therefore a combination of attitudes, knowledge,
understanding and skills which enables one, either individually or together with the
other(s), to:
 understand and respect people who are perceived to have different cultural
affiliations from oneself;
 respond appropriately, effectively and respectfully when interacting and
communicating with such people;
 establish positive and constructive relationships with such people;
 understand oneself through encounters with cultural ‘difference’. (Huber and
Reynolds, 2014: 16-17)

This combination of attitudes, knowledge and skills are the elements that the
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001) identifies as the
principal components to develop a ‘general competence’ that underlines the
development of language competences. This general competence is made up of
declarative knowledge or ‘savoir’, skills and know-how or ‘savoir faire’, ‘existential’
competence or ‘savoir-être’ and ability to learn or ‘savoir-apprendre’. These four
‘savoirs’ applied to intercultural competence, are itemized by Huber and Reynolds
(2014) into attitudes, knowledge or understanding and skills and actions. ‘Savoir-
apprendre’ is not considered to be a key element of intercultural competence by
Huber and Reynolds (2014). Barret, on the contrary, adds the behaviour or action
component ‘behaving and communicating effectively and appropriately during
intercultural encounters’. (n.d.: 1)
Barrett remarks that the relationship among the components of intercultural
competence needs to be further studied. Hence, he puts some questions that require
empirical answers:
 How does each of these components develop within the individual learner?
 What are the social, educational, cognitive and motivational factors which influence
the acquisition of each component?
 Are there particular sequences in which the various components are acquired?
 Is the acquisition of some components a necessary prerequisite for the acquisition
of other components?
 How are the different components cognitively and affectively inter-related?
 To what extent does the development of intercultural competence vary depending
on the specific cultural setting in which an individual lives, and the specific intercultural
encounters which an individual experiences within that setting? (Barrett, n.d.: 2)

By contrast to Huber and Reynolds (2014) or Barret (n.d.) , Byram (1997) supports
van Ek’s contribution of six competences: linguistic (‘ability to produce and interpret
meaning’), sociolinguistic (choice of a specific form between all the possible linguistic
forms depending on the context), discourse (the ability to combine grammatical forms
and meanings to achieve an effective written or oral message, strategic (finding ways
of communication even when that is difficult ‘such as rephrasing, asking for
clarification’), sociocultural (familiarity with the cultures associated to the target
language) and social (the skill to interact with others using all the aspects learnt). The
enormous influence of the social and cultural components is observed as essential to
manage effective communication.
Corbett (2003: 2) points out that ‘Intercultural communicative competence
includes the ability to understand the language and behaviour of the target
community, and explain it to members of the ‘home’ community – and vice versa.’
From these words, it can be inferred that there is a fundamental ability, the skill to
mediate.
Obviously, one key goal of an intercultural approach remains language
development and improvement; however, this goal is wedded to the equally
important aim of intercultural understanding and mediation. (Corbett, 2003: 2)

Mediation skills as well as language skills need to be improved in foreign language

classrooms to achieve as a main goal intercultural communicative competence. When
intercultural encounters take place, people need to put into action their plurilingual
competence and their communicative awareness in order to mediate between
cultures. Byram et al. (1994) identified a set of three main goals of foreign language
education: ‘appreciate similarities and differences’, ‘identify with the experience and
perspective where the target language is spoken’ and ‘use this knowledge to develop a
more objective view’. (DES, 1990: 36, cited in Byram et al., 1994: 15)
As a conclusion, Neuer (2012) cites the three general principles for intercultural
education:
Principle I: Intercultural Education respects the cultural identity of the learner
through the provision of culturally appropriate and responsive quality education for
all.

Principle II: Intercultural Education provides every learner with the cultural
knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to achieve active and full participation in
society.

Principle III: Intercultural Education provides all learners with cultural knowledge,
attitudes and skills that enable them to contribute to respect, understanding and
solidarity among individuals, ethnic, social, cultural and religious groups and nations.
(Neuer, 2012: 31)
 3.2. Beyond teaching culture

3.2.1. Language and culture

The close relationship between culture and language has been much debated.
Byram et al. (1994), for example, call the closeness between these two aspects
through the term ‘Language-and-culture’. They state that because of the fact that
language is used in social exchanges, the learner is affected by the social patterns lying
in the speech patterns of the language they are acquiring. In this manner, ‘we are
accepting another culture’s way of perceiving the world’. (Littlewood, 1981: 55 quoted
by Byram et al., 1994: 6)
It can be assumed that the learning process of culture is intrinsic to the learning
process of language. Despite the fact that these theories highlight the importance of
culture in teaching language, Byram et al.(1994) recognize that culture teaching has
usually been placed in background; the learning of culture is intrinsic but the ultimate
goal is to achieve the mastery of the language. Szende (2014: 21) claims ‘speaking a
language implies that one is in a position to call upon the elements that are necessary
for communication, and that one has mastered the references that populate the
cultural and discursive memory of a social group.” This affirmation highlights that if a
speaker is able to produce a successful message, he has acquired the necessary
cultural context, that is to say, the necessary ‘products, practices and perspectives’
(Moran 2001).
Moran (2001: 35) also refers to language-and-culture because it ‘conveys both
unification and separation. It acknowledges that we can deal with each separately and
with both together’. We can deduce here that language-and-culture have two
dimensions. On the one hand, it is almost impossible to separate culture from
language or vice versa, since members of a society have created language to express
their way of life, opinions, feelings or perspectives.
For Moran (2001), culture is basically products, which comprehends different
elements: ‘from objects, artifacts, or tools to places, complex social institutions, and
other constructions, like art, literature, architecture, and music’. (Moran, 2001: 36) He
explains that people use language to apply these products in their community.
Another dimension is practices. By practices we understand ceremonies, rituals
and rites, or all the occasions when the community comes together to engage and
participate in their customs, ‘where numerous practices are required from writing and
reading invitations, through welcoming guests, giving and receiving gifts, participating
in the ceremony, eating, making conversation, giving publics speeches, to leave-
takings’ (Moran 2001: 37). It is obvious that language is paramount in all these
communicative acts, where interactions between the members of the community
need speaking and listening skills, but it may also require writing and reading
comprehension.
A complex dimension is perspectives, because it calls upon the ‘perceptions,
values, attitudes and beliefs that governs our way of life’ (Moran 2001: 37). Here,
Moran is referring to the ‘invisible or intangible base of the iceberg’. Very frequently,
perspectives turn into words, sentences or texts that carry a heavy cultural load.
The last two dimensions of culture that are also intimately related to language are
community and persons. The community uses language differently depending on their
purpose or their cultural influence. The three dimensions mentioned above are not the
same in all communities, so people interact depending on the form of their products,
perspectives and practices. On the other hand, each person uses language in a
different way from any other person, ‘yet each of us uses language in an idiosyncratic
manner, based upon our background, experiences, social groups, our personal outlook
and our identity’ (Moran 2001: 38). In other words, each of us has different reasons to
communicate depending on our own circumstances, self-confidence, education and
values. The message is conveyed using words, signs, gestures, drawings or any other
way of communication.
Finally, as mentioned before, Moran (2001) claims that language-and-culture has
two dimensions: language as an indivisible part of culture and its five dimensions and,
secondly, language to learn culture. He argues at this point that language and culture
can be divided for pedagogical reasons. It is undeniable that the tool used in the
classroom to transmit culture is language; it is also the tool that students use to
interact and experience cultural patterns through listening, reading, and writing tasks.
Moran upholds that culture should be taught as a topic ‘and language the means to
comprehend, analyze, and respond to it’ (2001: 39).
Kramsch (1998: 3) also signals that ‘language is the principal means whereby we
conduct our social lives’. She explains that language expresses, embodies and
symbolizes cultural reality. ‘Language expresses cultural reality’ because people
communicate facts, ideas or events to other people. ‘Language embodies culture’
because people create experiences through language (a phone call, writing an email,
interpreting a chart, etc.). ‘Language symbolizes cultural reality’ because people see
their language as a symbol of their social reality.
Wierzbicka (1997: 115) illustrates the close relationship between language-culture
providing examples of the meaning of certain words which reflect culture: ‘I became
aware of Polish words which had no equivalents in English, and of which epistomised
something very special: an emotion, an attitude, a belief, a relationship, a colour, a
time, a type of experience.’ Many facets of the human being are reproduced by the
election of words. Wierzbicka (1997) gives examples in Polish and English about the
time of the day, social practices or celebrations, inner world, the religion of
philosophy, history, and interpersonal relations.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages speaks about
sociolinguistic competence, which ‘is concerned with the knowledge and skills required
to deal with the social dimension of language use.’(2001: 118) The Council of Europe
underlines the ‘social dimension’ of language and its importance in the study of a
foreign language because we do not only communicate through language or words but
also through culture.
To finish, I would like to echo Szende’s words, which link this section to the
following one:
More than a powerful and subtle tool for expression and communication, more than
a marketable technical skill of the job market, a foreign language should be looked
upon as a social practice, allowing access to a foreign culture. (Szende, 2014: 21)

Szende (2014) reflects on the important opportunities that culture-and-language

are giving to students, communities, states and the world.

3.2.2. The importance of teaching intercultural communicative competence

Writing this project has made me realize how important is for a person to become
interculturally competent in today’s societies. As Kramsch (1998: 66) points out, in the
acculturation process each person develops a sense of national identity that comes
naturally through this process. It is essential then that learners are able to decenter
and to become intercultural competent.
Some of the advantages of being intercultural competent I consider to be crucial
are the following:

 Awareness of otherness
Someone cannot be interculturally competent if he or she does not develop
knowledge and sensitivity of social and cultural diversity. Any assumption about any
social practice should be based on the knowledge and understanding of the origin and
the purpose. This fact would help to empathize with and appreciate alterity in new
ways.

 Successful communication
On the basis of the relation between language and culture, culture is indispensable
in foreign language teaching if people want to achieve effective communication.
Moran (2001: 7) claims that if you aim to communicate, it is necessary to cross the
border from your way of life into other people’s way of life. In addition,
communication carries cultural perspectives, beliefs and practices without which we
could not be able to cross the border.
Fantini (1997: 40) also supports this argument by declaring that ‘language
proficiency must be developed within the context of ‘appropriate’ behaviours,
determined by the norms of a specific culture. To achieve this, both the target
language and culture must be explored’.
Milton (1997: 16) suggests an interesting concept to describe the people who
master a foreign language but do not communicate successfully: a ‘fluent fool’.
A fluent fool is someone who speaks a foreign language well but doesn’t understand
the social or philosophical content of that language. Such people are likely to get into
all sorts of trouble because both they themselves and others overestimate their
ability. They may be invited into complicated social situations where they cannot
understand the events deeply enough to avoid giving or taking offence. Eventually,
fluent fools may develop negative opinions of the native speakers whose language
they understand but whose basic beliefs and values continue to elude them.

Milton makes reference to two of the problems that can arise if we do not solve
communication misunderstandings: cultural crush and stereotypes leading even to
bigger issues, such as racism or violation of human rights. Milton also suggests a
solution to these possible problems.
To avoid becoming a fluent fool, we need to understand more completely the
cultural dimensions of language. Language does serve as a tool for communication,
but in addition it is a “system of representation” for perception and thinking. (Milton,
1997:16)

 Avoiding culture shock

Linked to the statement above, by developing intercultural communicative
competence learners will be able to deal with or even overcome culture shock, defined
as any conflict that may arise when experiencing otherness. Seelye (1994: 57) explains
that ‘because of a clash of values – a culture difference in the perception of the
appropriate way to satisfy basic physical and psychological needs.’ He points out some
symptoms of culture shock, such as irritability, sense of cheating or hypersensitivity.
While Seelye (1994) describes the conflicts and puts clear examples of cultural
misunderstanding that happen in encounters with people from different cultures,
Corbett (2003: 34) affirms that ‘by encouraging learners to be active analysts and
interpreters of culture (including their own), we help them along the situations where
they might otherwise be at a loss, and where authoritative guidance is unavailable.’
  Distorting lenses
Our specific communicative competence reflects, in a particular way, the view we
hold of the world; this theory, called relativity, has been long discussed. Fantini (1997:
11) explains the theory in the following words: ‘the language we acquire influences the
way we construct our model of the world (hence, determinism). And if this is so, other
languages convey differing visions of the same world (relativity)’. We could interpret
these words as an opportunity to expand our mind to different points of view; a
privilege that enriches our own style of life. Therefore, Fantini continues:
The added benefit that exposure to a second lingua culture (LC2) affords an
opportunity to develop a different or, at least, an expanded vision of the world. [...]
Intercultural competence offers the possibility of transcending the limitations of
one’s singular world view. *...+ Those who have never experienced another culture
nor labored to communicate through a second language, [...] are often unaware of
the milieu in which they have always existed. (Fantini, 1997:13)

If we only know any other language or culture we may fall in automatism, that is,
mechanic execution of acts. As it is pointed out in the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages (2001: 43), the acquisition of a second language always
enables ‘the individual to develop an enriched, more complex personality and an
enhanced capacity for further language learning and greater openness to new cultural
experiences’.
In spite of the fact that learning a new language open you a door to new
perspectives and new possibilities, I have used the term “distorting lenses” (Szende,
2014: 26) because it is necessary to deform our view of the world to be able to
appreciate other views. This is a concept that Szende (2014) uses to explain that we
are able to learn a new language because we have previously acquired a first language;
we base our progress on the ‘interference’ from our mother tongue.
We look at the second language and culture through the deforming lenses of our first
language and culture [...] The learner`s previous linguistic and cultural knowledge (or
capital, one might say) constitute the main filter which any new language teaching-
learning will necessarily pass through. (Szende, 2014: 26)

On the contrary, though we are always going to be under our mother tongue
pressure or interference, it is necessary to deform our lenses to encounter other
perspectives.

 Critical awareness of our own culture

Being interculturally competent allows us to be aware of our own culture. As
mediators between two cultures, it is necessary to understand both ways of life.
Reflecting upon a foreign culture is as important as reflecting upon our own. In other
words, as explained by Huber and Reynolds:
 Interculturally competent individuals acquire a more critical awareness and
understanding of their own cultural positioning, beliefs, discourses and values
through comparing and relating them to those of other people. For this reason,
intercultural competence not only enhances one’s knowledge and understanding of
other people; it also enhances self-knowledge and self-understanding. (Huber and
Reynolds, 2014: 24)

Wierzbicka (1997), a polish woman who has lived in Australia for more than
twenty years, relates her experience as a ‘bicultural person’. She explains how strong
her feeling of ignorance of her Polish culture was before moving to Australia.
When I lived in Poland, immerse in Polish culture, I was no more aware of its
specialness than I was of the air I breathed. Now, immersed in the very different
Anglo (and Anglo-Australian) culture, I gradually became more and more aware of
the distinctiveness of Polish Culture.

To begin with, I became aware of Polish words which had no equivalents in the
English, and each of which epitomised something very special: an emotion, an
attitude, a belief, a relationship, a colour, a time, a type of experience. (Wierzbicka,
1997: 115)

The moment we experience another culture we make comparisons with ours,

because as Szende (2014) highlights, our particular view of the world is our point of
reference. In this process of comparison, we become self-aware and self-
understanding of our own culture.

 Culture as a fact that liberates and constrains

Kramsch (1998) asserts that culture has a double effect: liberation and constriction.
She explains that culture liberates you in opposition of the randomness, anonymity
and chaos that characterize nature. Culture gives you the opportunity to develop
yourself, identify yourself in a community, set up ties with other people and have a
feeling of fulfilment because you are needed in the society. On the contrary, we are
also constrained to the limitation that culture shows. When we belong to a specific
community, we must be respectful with rules, principles and the structure that culture
has and that we acquire in the process of enculturation.
Every culture has its limitations but if we take advantage of cultural difference the
constriction factor is lower and the liberator factor is higher. You become even freer
because your partial and distorted lens of the world is a little wider and lighter.

 Discovering self-identity
The feeling of identity in a community is of special relevance to the self-esteem of a
person. Kramsch (1998) claims that people have a natural necessity to belong to a
community: ‘from this membership, they draw personal strength and pride, as well as
a sense of social importance and historical continuity’ (1998: 67). Being interculturally
competent allows individuals to have a sense of membership not only in an isolated
community, but also in other communities that can help them increase their self-
esteem and confidence, since they are able to work as mediators between cultures
that may enter into conflict. This undoubtedly will lead to personal development.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, in addition, makes
explicit the importance of this self-development through the learning of other cultures.
‘In an intercultural approach, it is a central objective of language education to promote
the favourable development of the learner’s whole personality and sense of identity in
response to the enriching experience of otherness in language and culture’. (2001: 1)

 Source of motivation in the foreign language classroom

Developing intercultural competence has the potential to be motivating for
students, since its content catches their attention and the tasks are not frequently
grammar-based. Buttjes (1988: 52) quoted by Byram et al.(1994: 13) sees the cultural
content of a curriculum ‘prime motivator for language learning.’ They are encouraged
to be ethnographers and explorers of new cultures and experiences.

 Ensuring human rights

The Council of Europe is developing numerous projects, whose main objective is
the pursuance of human rights among all Europeans. For example, the third volume of
the Pestalozzi series focuses on the integration of intercultural competence as a key
competence. This is the reason why Huber and Reynolds (2014) point out that
interculturality is an essential instrument, whose basic aims are:
- To pursue peaceful coexistence among European citizens.
- To address virulent problems such as stereotype, prejudice and discrimination.
All the more so since intercultural competence addresses the root of a range of
issues our societies face: stereotyping, discrimination, all forms of racism and so on,
all which are exacerbated in times of economic difficulty. (Huber and Reynolds, 2014:
7)

As a conclusion, I would like to add that all these advantages of implementing

intercultural communicative competence in second language teaching implies
encouraging teachers to establish and reach interculturally-based objectives, because
all of them will help to build a better world where there is equality of opportunities for
everybody.

3.2.2.1. Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination

To begin with, stereotypes could be the cause of prejudice and therefore,
discrimination. Stereotyping is related to identity, not to the way one person identifies
himself or herself, but to the way another person identifies another depending on the
language they use, the religion they practice, their wearing style or the colour of their
skin. However, stereotypes are not fortuitous; Kramsch (1998: 67-69) upholds that it is
not a natural mechanism.
Group identity is not a natural fact, but a cultural perception [...] Our perception of
someone’s social identity is very much culturally determined. What we perceive
about a person’s culture and language is what we have been conditions by our own
culture to see, and the stereotypical model already built around our own.

She claims that our impressions depend beforehand on the classificatory concepts
prevalent in our society after a process of diffusion. Negative stereotypes spread
across groups of people or whole communities may be a cause of prejudice. She
distinguishes different kind of stereotypes, some of them related to the language used
and the membership to an ethnic group; and some of them related to language and
the national citizenship.
Allport (1954: 6) defines the concept as ‘thinking ill of others without sufficient
warrant’. Even though he points out that ethnic prejudice is mostly negative, he also
accepts that there is positive prejudice (thinking favourable).
Vivian and Brown (1995) assume that prejudgment is natural, that is, a necessity
to categorize everything in order to find meaning to some complex phenomena: ‘we
need to simplify the extraordinary complex physical and social world that we inhabit
by placing objects, events, and people (including the self) into various categories’.
(1995: 63)
However Allport (1954) highlights that this previous categorization or
prejudgments needs to be changed before it becomes irreversible, on the contrary,
prejudices would always be irreversible: ‘prejudgements become prejudice only if they
are not reversible when exposed to new knowledge. A prejudice, unlike a simple
misconception, is actively resistant to all evidence that would unseat it.’ (1954: 9)
Hence, stereotypes are cognitive in nature, whereas prejudices are attitudinal.
According to Allport (1954) prejudices have the following characteristics:

 Prejudice is based on probability, so misconceptions are not set on

scientific or universal statements.
 Prejudice as stereotypes are overspread because of over-categorization
or generalization of preconceptions or isolated bad experiences.
 Prejudice is stratified conceptions, so it is almost impossible to change
these conceptions.
He also distinguishes between belief prejudice and attitude prejudice. Belief
prejudice is an inner opinion, which is not outsourced, so it could go unnoticed. On the
contrary, attitude prejudice is translated in likely unfair and questionable actions.
Although both kinds of prejudice need to be dealt with, attitudinal prejudice may lead
to serious problems, such as discrimination: ‘Discrimination has more immediate and
serious social consequences than has prejudice’. (Allport, 1954: 14)
Likewise, Vivian and Brown (1995: 58) assert that ‘by prejudice we mean the
derogatory attitudes that members of one group may hold about another, and the
discriminatory behavior that is often associated with this.’ ‘Derogatory attitudes’ may
appear between groups (intergroup conflict) or between one person and another
(interpersonal).
Allport (1954) also categorizes negative actions into different degrees: antilocution,
avoidance, discrimination, physical attack and extermination. The purpose of
intercultural approaches in education should be to avoid any kind of prejudice and to
form balanced judgments based on knowledge and experience, rather than
stereotypes or prejudice.
The following section discusses methodological issues concerning the
implementation of an intercultural approach in the foreign language class.
 3.3. Implementing an intercultural approach
Huber and Reynolds (2014), in representation of the Council of Europe, indicate
that any methodology implemented in schools would not be efficient if it does not
follow the general aim of intercultural education. They encourage teachers to use
pedagogical approaches, methods and techniques involving students actively: ‘The
most effective learning activities engage learners as whole persons and address their
intellectual, emotional and physical potential’ (2014: 30). Because of this reason, they
propose ’co-operative learning’ and ‘learning by doing’.
Seelye highlights one main principle in an efficient intercultural methodology; he
claims that ‘cultural instruction must be purposeful’ (1994: 29). In addition, Huber and
Reynolds (2014) suggest five more principles to follow when planning the syllabus:

 Experience. When developing attitudes for intercultural competence, it is

necessary to acquire knowledge directly from experience which could be
fostered through games, face-to-face interaction, social media, or real texts
and among others.
 Comparison. It is inevitable to make comparisons when contacting a new
culture, but students need to be encouraged to see differences and similarities
from a non-judgmental point of view.
 Analysis. It is essential to analyze what lies beneath that new knowledge.
 Reflection. Comparison, analysis and experience need to be accompanied by
time and space for reflection and the development of critical awareness and
understanding.
 Action. The final step should be to take action and be involved in intercultural
encounters.
Stern (1997) makes distinction between different approaches which can be also
considered as key principles to follow in a syllabus creation.

 Creating an authentic classroom environment. Taking into account that the

student is far from the target language community(ies), it is important to bring
the culture closer through any possible realia.
 Providing cultural information through different techniques (see below).
 Real-life exposure to the target culture or communicative exchanges with
native speakers. When communication is not possible via direct contact with
the target language community, the following tasks are possible.
o Pen-pals or exchange of letters. This activity is nowadays old-fashioned,
but the Internet gives teachers and students opportunities such as
social networks or email.
o Visits to the language class by native speakers.
o Visit to other countries and regions.
  Making use of cultural community resources, for example, through a native
speaker who lives in the learner’s community.
While Stern (1997) and Huber and Reynolds (2014) indicate some principles to
follow, Moran (2001: 15-21) proposes two frameworks for teaching culture: the
cultural knowings framework and Kolb’s model of experiential learning.
The cultural knowings framework consists of four interconnected learning
interactions very closely related to the four ‘savoirs’ proposed by the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001):
- Knowing About, which includes all the activities that will help students acquire
cultural information: ‘Learners need to master information about the culture’.
(Moran, 2001: 15)
- Knowing How: at this stage, the learner should acquire practices of the target
culture and learn how to behave accordingly to their customs and traditions.
- Knowing Why: this stage is related to the dimension of perspectives. The
student needs to be able to understand the beliefs and attitudes that lay under
a culture. Here, observation, analysis of the collected information and
comparison are necessary.
- Knowing Oneself or self-awareness: ‘individual learners need to understand
themselves and their own culture as a means to comprehending, adapting to,
or integrating into the culture’. (Moran, 2001: 17)
Moran points out that each of the stages or dimensions need different activities or
content. Nevertheless, he situates the knowings framework within the experimental
learning cycle. Kolb (1984) put forward four stages based on experiences in with
another culture.

 Concrete experience or first contact with the culture.

 Reflective observation to describe what has happened.
 Abstract conceptualization, where the students develop explanations and new
strategies.
 Active experimentation. The student responds to a new cultural experience
applying the strategies previously learnt.
Moran matches the four knowing aspects with Kolb’s stages of the experiential
learning. (2001: 19)
 Participation
Knowing How

Response
Description
Knowing
Knowing About
Oneself

Interpretation
Knowing Why

This model is based on the assumptions that culture learning can be a conscious
and purposeful process, and on the assumptions that it is necessary to compare
cultures. It also requires managing emotions and making tacit elements explicit.
Learners’ characteristics, institutional context and teacher-student relationship affect
culture learning in addition to the relation between the learner’s culture and the target
culture.

3.3.1. Approaches, goals and contents

As discussed above, Huber and Reynolds (2014) insist on the relevance of applying
active approaches to get students involved in participation, for example, experiential
learning, project work and co-operative learning. In experiential learning or ‘learning
by doing’ students base their knowledge on experience, but it also involves
‘comparison, analysis, reflection and co-operative action’. (2014: 37) Project work
‘involves topic- or theme-based tasks [...] in which goals and content are negotiated by
all participants, and learners create their own learning materials that they present and
evaluate together.’ (Huber and Reynolds, 2014: 38)
The rationale behind co-operative learning, a widespread approach nowadays, is
that students learn when they work collaboratively and each person is responsible for
the outcomes of the group: ‘This team work ensures that there is constructive and
encouraging interdependence among the group members leading to improves social
skills and conflict-resolution strategies, and a gradual decrease in labelling and
exclusion of individual member’. (Huber and Reynolds, 2014: 38)
On the other hand, Seelye (1994) addresses the important issue of how to select
cultural information. He based his method on ‘Six Goals’ that should lead to a
behavioural change, or at least to awaken curiosity or interest for other cultures. The
six goals are:

 Students’ interest and empathy towards other cultures and its members.
 Students need to recognize that people’s behaviour and speech are influenced
by cultural facts.
 Students need to understand that communicative achievement include being
aware of the cultural facts that influence their reactions and behaviour.
 Students need to understand that reactions and behaviours are based on the
satisfaction of physical needs and the election among different options that
satisfy them.
 Students need to be able to evaluate the target language.
Comparative approaches are widespread in intercultural education. For example,
Byram et al. (1994) defend that whatever the student’s level of acquisition is, a
comparative approach is efficient. Students compare the native language with the
target language, which is natural and necessary.
Nevertheless the psychological theory points quite clearly to the need for a
comparative method: learners need to become aware of their cultural schemata –
and of the affective, attitudinal dimension of those schemata – in order to effect an
acknowledgement of those of a different culture. (1994: 44)

Throughout this comparative method, not only cultural aspects are compared, but
also lexis and vocabulary. Students may find different words but similar meanings or
new concepts that they need to assimilate comprehending their peculiarities. But the
main advantage to carry out this method is the fact that when students are able to see
these differences in similar words, they have started to appreciate the target language.
He quotes Lado’s (1958) proposal of three kind of contrast:
 ‘same form, different meaning’
 ‘same meaning, different form’
 ‘same form, same meaning, different distribution’ (Byram et al., 1994: 45)

3.3.2. Activities
A wide array of intercultural activities has been proposed to work with the
different components, dimensions or aspects of intercultural communicative
competence. Stern (1992) believes that, in order to provide real cultural input, it is
important to put into practice different techniques. He suggests:

 Cultural asides: items that are displayed during the development of the lesson
such as songs or a summary of the news. They help to create context as they
also catch the attention of the learners.
 Culture capsule: it is an isolated item of information. It is a verbal presentation
prepared by the teacher and is combined with realia, visuals and other aids.
Seelye defines it as ‘a paragraph or so of explanation of one minimal difference
between an American [or any other native speaker of the target language] and
a target custom, along with several illustrative photos or relevant realia.’ (1994:
174)
What follows is an example of a Culture capsule by Seelye (1994: 175-177)
Culture Capsule: French Bread

(prepared by Blossom Adler)

We speak of a thing being as good as gold, but the Frenach people speak of a thing as
being as good as bread, the French love and value bread as an important element of
life. The French eat bread at every meal. It comes in various shapes and sizes.

The urban French housewife does not bake her own bread. She goes to the
bakery daily to buy fresh bread, if bread is left over from the evening meal, it will not
be wasted. It will be used in cooking or will be toasted for breakfast to be eaten with
butter and/or jam. Bread and butter is called une tartine. Except in Normandy and
Brittany, butter is served only at breakfast or with certain foods (e.g. radishes,
Roquefort cheese, on dark bread [pain bis] with oysters).
In rural areas, families often make their own delicious dark bread, pain de
champagne (country bread), which keeps well. Traditionally, a person of honor in the
household, perhaps the grandfather, makes a cross on the loaf with a large knife, then
cuts slices for all, holding the loaf against his chest and drawing the knife towards
himself. Nowadays, this custom is rare, especially in urban areas. Taking a slice of
bread, each person places it in the tablecloth above the fork. To eat it one will break
off a bite-sized piece and hold it in the left hand as one eats. The bread is used as a
“pusher”. When it is full of sauce or meat gravy, one will pop it into one’s mouth and
break off another piece. One will use bread as a pusher for sauces, salads, and
between courses to “clear the palate.”

French bread is made without shortening or preservatives. Therefore, it dries

quickly and fresh supply must be purchased for each meal.

Questions
1. How often do the French eat bread?
2. How do they indicate the importance of bread?
3. Why is bread often purchased just before the meal?
4. What happens to any leftover bread?
5. What is a tartine?
6. Is butter always served with the bread?
7. How is the bread traditionally sliced in rural France?
8. How does each person eat his slice’
 9. Is it polite to use bread as a “pusher” in France?
10. Have you tasted French bread? Do you like it?
Material and instructions to be included with capsule

Title of capsule: Bread

Visual equipment: Slide projector

Recommended use: Junior high students studying a unit on food

Materials: Enough French bread for each student to have a slice; enough chunky chocolate
bars, broken into pieces, for each student to have a piece; one napkin for each student.

Reusable Materials:
Slides: Street view of a boulangerie, inside view of a boulangerie, people carrying bread,
several baguettes, boy or girl eating their snack of pain au chocolat (a roll with chocolate bar
baked inside), family table scene.

Chart showing various shapes of bread and their names (taken form volume 2 of Julia Child’s
Mastering the Art of French Cooking.)

When each student is served with a napking, bread, and chocolate, the teacher tells them taht
they are about to experience not only French bread but what French boys and girls eat at
snack time (le goûter).
Vocabulary to be stressed:

Le pain, la boulangerie, la tartine, le goûter, la baguette.

 Culture cluster: ‘Culture cluster are combinations of conceptually related

culture capsules or they are a major set of activities broken up into its
constituent part’ (Seelye, 1994: 177). He added to the set of ‘three illustrated
culture capsules’, a simulation containing the information used in the cluster.
An example of a Culture cluster by Seelye (1994: 178-179) is reproduced below:
Culture Cluster: Un repas familial
Prepared by Marsha Rybski
Cultural goal

The students will demonstrate awareness of French behaviour in a conventional

situation in the target culture: a family meal in a French home.

Performance Objective 1
Terminal behaviour

The student will place the following items of table service correctly on the table in
the position in which they would be placed by a French housewife: tablecloth,
plate, glass, silverware/knife rest, napkin, loaf of bread.
 Conditions

The student will place the items on the table in the presence of the teacher. The
student may have as much time as necessary to place all the items on the table.

Criterion

The student must correctly place five of the items from the above list. The
silverware items will, as shown on the list, be considered as one. (They are in
relatively the same positions on the table as in an American home.)

Performance Objective 2

Terminal behaviour
The student will demonstrate proper French table manners in eating the following
foods: soup, bread, an apple, meat.

Conditions

The teacher will provide the student with a slice of bread and an apple. (These are
difficult to pantomime.) The student will pantomime appropriate manner for
eating soup and meat. The student will be seated at a table and provided with a
French place setting.
Criterion
The student will correctly demonstrate French etiquette while eating three of the
four items mentioned above.

Culture capsule 1

How to set the table

Culture capsule 2

How to act at the table

Culture capsule 3
A family meal

Simulation

A family meal

Discussion

(Time – 15 minutes for each cluster, over three days; 30 minutes for simulation and
discussion, final day.)

 Cultural problem solving or culture assimilators (Seelye: 1994). In this kind of

activities the students should find a solution to aconflict (cultural
misunderstandings) presented as a text. The student is provided with four
plausible explanations, in a multiple-choice format, of which only one is
 considered correct. The explanations of right and wrong answers provide an
excuse in favour of reflection and work against prejudice and stereotypes.
What follows is an example of a Culture cluster by Seelye (1994: 169-170)
Culture Assimilator Episode 4: Colombia
(prepared by Diane Pretzer)
Bob and Mary Jones, recent arrivals in Bogotá, have been invited to the home
of a Colombian co-worker for a dinner party. Their host mentioned 9 p.m. Bob
was surprised at the late hour of starting, but he and Mary made it a point to
arrive right on time so as not to delay dinner.
Arriving at the door, they rang the bell. After a long pause, they rang
again. Finally a servant appeared and ushered them into the living room, which
was dark until that moment, when the lamps were lighted. Rather puzzled
looks passed between them as they sat silently for a while, and they finally
began to talk, almost in whispers. “Do you suppose we got the wrong house or
the wrong night?” Anxiously they watched the door. At 9:45 their host
appeared, greeted them cordially, and said he and his wife would be with them
shortly. At 10:30, host and hostess appeared, followed by servants with drinks,
and soon, other guests arrived. Still puzzled, the Joneses relaxed, but were
certainly glad when dinner was finally served at 11:30.
What best explain the delay?
A. Bob and Mary did have wrong night, but their host and hostess were graciously
and valiantly trying to make the best of it. They hurriedly dressed, got some
neighbours to come in, and gave a pretty good impromptu party.
B. Bob and Mary hadn’t discovered yet that, regardless of time mentioned, no
host would expect his guests to arrive until at least one or one and one-half
hours later.
C. Bob was mistaken when he thought they were told the party was at 9:00. His
friend had said there would be nine guests.
D. Bob and Mary forgot to change their watches when they arrived in Bogotá.
You choose A. This is not the right choice. Latins may be known for hospitality,
but not that much!

You choose B. This is the appropriate choice. Few nonnatives would know it
until they had such an experience, or were especially cautioned by those in the
know. The party would proceed at a very leisurely pace, and it might last till 3
a.m., even on a weeknight.

You choose C. If Bob’s Spanish was adequate for work in Bogotá, he isn’t too
likely to mix up a las nueve and habré nueve invitados. This is not a good
choice.

You choose D. Since they probably have been there at least a few days, this
choice is extremely unlikely.
  Behavioural and affective activities address empathy, or the feelings or
sensations that native speakers usually experiment. Some behavioural and
affective activities are:
o The audio-motor unit based on the Total Physical Response method
applied to cultural situations (behaviour in a restaurant, how to bow,
etc.)
o Dramatization
o Mini-drama
o Role play and simulation
 Cognitive approaches which use literature, for example readings, lectures
discussions, and debates. These kinds of activities favour an academic study of
the target culture, rather than an experimental study. Many authors agree that
literature and humanities have an important role inside intercultural education.
Stern highlights that literary text enhances learners’ feeling, thoughts and
values: ‘the literary message may be superior to a formal exposition and can
provide an excellent entry into a new world of thought and feeling’. (Stern,
1992: 229) Corbett (2003) also brings to the fore the utility of literature
because it is the vivid reflex of an entire society and its members:
Certainly an advantage of ‘cultural texts’ (whether literature, film or other social
practice) is that they dramatise the target value system by showing its tensions
and conflicts, and this fact may indeed motivate learners who are negotiating
their own tensions and conflicts as they encounter new culture. (Corbett, 174-
175)

Corbett says that one option to understand our own conflicts is by reading,
interpreting and analysing a foreign cultural product through literature.
On the contrary, Stern warns that literature may contribute to the creation of
stereotypes of characters and that writers may reflect their own point of view ‘which is
not necessarily representative of the way of life of a society’ (1992: 229).
The cinema, television, documentaries, or sitcoms can also be used for
intercultural education in foreign language learning.
Corbett (2003) suggests a full range of communicative activities and group work,
for example, ethnographic activities, to encourage the exploration of cultural practices.
An interesting proposal is using interviews between learners and members of the
target culture(s). This kind of activities will help to develop learners’ mediating
competences. Prior to carrying out the interviews, teachers need to focus on teaching
students how to conduct interviews. Through interviews, Corbett explains, speakers
give cultural information and values. He also gives some tips to guide interviews and to
collect cultural data from interviews.
 Corbett (2003), like Huber and Reynolds (2014), makes explicit the advantages of
using images or visual literacy in the classroom. The advantages of using images,
photographs, drawings, cartoons, advertisements, among others, are:

 Images develop learners’ skill ‘not only in understanding but in interpreting.’

 Students develop critical awareness through discussion and interpreting.
 Students also develop ‘their verbal skills and intercultural competence.’
 Images can be used at any level of the curriculum.
 Images bring into the classroom those objects which would be otherwise
outside learners’ reach.
 Images help to contextualise language use. (Corbett, 2003: 139-141)
Byram et al. (1994: 46-47) suggests another stimulating vocabulary-orientated task,
named key-word technique ‘where learners meet cultural phenomena which have not
even an apparent equivalent in their own culture, they have to learn vocabulary which
is untranslatable in even a minimal sense.’ It can be used in selected aspects of culture
so that learners’ attention is drawn to specific key words.
Huber and Reynolds (2014: 39-51) propose tasks like:

 Activities emphasising multiples perspectives, for instant, description of an

image or event by different pupils, where various opinions are set to start a
discussion, comparison or analysis. These kinds of activities help to realize that
many perspectives exist for an image or situation; it also helps to fight against
misjudgements and stereotypes.
 Theatre, poetry and creative writing adapted to different levels and also
developed from different perspectives.
 Ethnographic tasks. Activities where the pupils have to explore life in the real
world. Afterwards they would analyze the experience and reflect upon it.
 Films and texts. At this point, pupils make progress practising the language but
also acquire new cultural information. In this case, the teacher should
emphasise his role as a guide and source of information.
 Image-making/still images in class. Learners recreate images regarding aspects
of cultures, for instant, postures, non-verbal language, events, dialogues; while
the rest of the class takes pictures or film the recreation. Pupils need to acquire
skills for changing or adapting behaviours, fostering their avoidance or even
fight against stereotypes and prejudice.
 Social media and other online tools.
 3.3.3. Roles

The learner’s roles, as well as the teacher’s roles, vary depending on the activity
developed and the stages of the task. For example, at the beginning, the role of the
teacher would be supplier of the materials and initiator of the task. Later, he or she
will become a negotiator or mediator. Byram (1994) highlights two of the roles of
teacher: teacher as a model and as a source of information. The teacher is the first
person who needs to be interculturally competent as s/he is usually an example to
follow for the student. Teachers ‘need to understand the implications of cultural
learning, both cognitive and affective, for their practices in the classroom as well as for
their teaching ‘in the field’’. (Byram 1994: 73)
Moran (2001: 138) also points out some other requirements or roles: ‘Teachers
need to be versatile. They need to be able to present or elicit cultural information,
coach and model cultural behaviour, guide and conduct cultural research and analysis.’
They also need to be able to empathize with students, so as to help them to step out
of their worlds into another language, another culture.
Moran (2001: 146) distinguishes different roles depending on the four different
knowings discussed above. I would like to highlight the role of arbiter. In the
development of some activities discussions are going to arise, this is the moment when
the teacher needs to distinguish between real facts and opinions or interpretations;
teachers may need to clarify certain kind of information to prevent learners from
assuming that stereotypes are true realities.
In the case of the learners’ role they are listener, researcher, team member and
intercultural communicative learners. However, in this approach it is also necessary to
introduce the role of ethnographer (Byram,1994). Learners are ethnographers since
they look for new cultural appreciations and attitudes, this way becoming explorers of
a new world.

3.3.4. Assessment

It is a hard job to find an agreement on how to assess learners’ intercultural

competence. This project has made evident the difficulty to define culture giving its
manifold and abstract dimensions. In addition, many components of intercultural
competence are arduous to measure at least in a quantitative way. Regarding the
importance of assessing intercultural competence, Corbett (2003) considers that in the
context of language teaching, if only language use is tested, cultural aspects will be
underestimated and students will devaluate intercultural activities. A further reason is
that official institutions always claim for worthy assessments that reflect students’
required competences. Finally, cultural evaluation could be seen as an opportunity to
motivate not only students but also teachers who can follow the progress students
have made.
A difficult aspect with respect to interculturality is what to assess. Byram et al.
(1994) identify three clear areas to be evaluated: ‘knowledge’, ‘attitudes’ and
‘behaviour’; aspects which could be related to the four stages of the experiential
learning: ‘knowledge’ or ‘description stage’, ‘attitudes’ or ‘interpretation stage’, and
‘behaviour’ or ‘participation and response stages’.
Byram underlines the importance of establishing precise objectives concerning
intercultural aspects. These objectives would be the key to set out the evaluation
criteria:
This basic issue is equally important with respect to assessment. It is, first of all, self-
evident that the selection of objectives from the comprehensive description of ICC
means that assessment should focus on those objectives [in the curriculum] only, i.e.
on determining in how far learners have reached the competence described by those
selected objectives. (Byram, 1997: 87)

Taking into account how to assess, The Common Framework of Reference for
Languages (2001) lists some of the common types of assessment. Byram (1994)
specifies that the traditional ways of testing, ‘objective tests’, only allows particular
answers such as in multiple choice or short-answered questions. This kind of testing is
precise, short-time consuming and reliable when qualifications are of maximum
importance. On the contrary, they only test knowledge, but do not test empathy,
attitudes, or practices. The need for a more feasible testing led to the introduction of
‘criterion-referenced tests and examinations’. Evaluators provide with some criteria to
be evaluated taking into account Knowledge, empathy and behaviour.
As Karwacka-Vögele (2012: 52) asserts, assessment is a ‘source of reflection’, a
‘source of motivation’ and ‘a set of guidelines’ because it encourages students and
learners to rethink, boosts continuous improvement and provides a guide to put
together a successful intercultural program. She proposes a set of indicators to assess
the success of the programmes. They are questions to be answered by individuals or
by the institutions (schools, secondary schools, organizations). These indicators are
very interesting because they are presented as a kind of portfolio, which could be used
as self-assessment.
Another model, based in portfolios, is the one edited by IldikòLázár (2008). It is a
tool that test one’s own attitudes, skills and knowledge to be interculturally
competent. It is a set of I-statements which makes you think and reflect about your
competences. The Council of Europe supports the use of the European Language
Portfolio (ELP) and defines it as ‘a document in which those who are learning or have
 learned one or more languages can record and reflect on their language learning and
intercultural experiences.’ (http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/elp/ELP-
REG/Default_EN.asp). It consists of three parts: a language passport, a language
biography, and a dossier.
There is not a unique portfolio since it can be designed for different languages,
different age groups and different purposes but, at the end, all portfolios aim to help
learners achieve autonomy, and reflect on their plurilingualism and intercultural
awareness.
Byram (1997) asserts that:
The use of a portfolio to document competence allows a combination of atomised
and holistic assessment. [...] A portfolio would therefore allow levels to be set for
each component and for holistic performance, with criteria specifying levels of
attainment appropriately for each competence and savoir. (Byram, 1997: 107)

Retrieved from: Council of Europe (2006: 3, 4 and 7) My Languages Portfolio.

European Language Portfolio – Junior version: Revised edition.
 3.4. Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence to deal with
adolescence
This section explores the relation between intercultural education and the
development of the teenagers’ sense of identity. In the introduction to this project, I
pointed out that I would like to propose a didactic unit within the framework of
intercultural competence, so that teenagers can understand the process of change
they undergo at this stage.
As stated above, in order to empathize with people from other cultures and in
order to mediate between cultures, it is firstly necessary to accept different points of
view and, secondly, to understand your own culture and identity: ‘before acquiring an
understanding of their own country, children must be able to ‘decentre’ and
understand points of view different from their own’. (Byram, 1994: 16)
I firmly believe that these processes could help teenagers to understand not only
other behaviours, practices or perspectives, but also their own identity. The different
causes of the identity crisis that teenagers endure during the puberty or adolescence
stage have been widely discussed. According to Santrock (2003) teenagers undergo:

 Biological changes (adrenarche or gonadarche) combined with hormone

factors. It is believed that hormone factors may explain part of the increase
of negative feelings and the variability that characterizes adolescent
behaviour.
 Cognitive changes such as the development of inductive or deductive
reasoning. Piaget suggested that people undergo four different stages
when reasoning and these stages are related to age. The ability to
formulate new hypotheses and solutions to problems increases in
adolescence, so that adolescents adapt their form of thinking to include
new ideas.
 Psychosocial changes (modification in social roles).In the process of
adolescence, many roles and personalities are experienced until teenagers
find a stable sense of the self.
Connected with this idea it is also widely acknowledged that teachers need to deal
with the challenge of the search for individual identity in adolescence: ‘Identity has to
be forged among classmates and friends; peer approval may be considerably more
important for students than the attention of the teacher which, young children, is so
crucial’. (Harmer, 2001: 39)
From the point of view of sociology, there exist two kinds of socialization, which
strongly influence the identity of the subject. ‘Primary socialization’ is the first of them
and is the basis for ‘Secondary socialization’. Through primary socialization, the child is
introduced into a society or sector of it and within it, the child encounters the
‘significant others’, usually his/her parents or relatives, ‘the significant others who
mediate this word to him modify it in the course of mediating’ so that the social world
is ‘filtered’’. (Berger and Luckmann, 1966: 151)
Albeit ‘Secondary socialization’ takes place on the basis of ‘Primary socialization’
that is ‘it must deal with an already formed self and an already internalized world’,
(Berger and Luckmann, 1966: 160), this internalized reality may be unstable in the
moment new content appears and superimpose itself upon the ‘primary’ reality. This
new content is apprehended in ‘second socialization’.
Some of the crises that occur after primary socialization are indeed caused by the
recognition that the world of one’s parents is not the only world there is. (Berger and
Luckmann, 1966: 161)

‘Significant others’ are generally identified with parents or relatives the child
encounters during the first years of his life as secondary socialisation is said to start
with school entrance. If intercultural competence is developed at classrooms,
‘significant others’ (even though possibly never as significant as parents or relatives
that introduced the child into society during his primary socialisation) might also be
other teenagers or peers from other cultures. These significant others will help them
understand these changes or conflicts from a different point of view. They may help
an individual to discover themselves, their own identity, their country identity and
they will develop empathy, respect and value for otherness. Meeting otherness may
help learners to discover that even though they do not share the same religion,
opinions or believes, people different from them have similar problems. They are
likely to learn to understand each other despite their differences and to help each
other on the basis of their similarities.
However, adolescents’ curiosity and motivation may be reduced when they step
into this stage. As some studies reveal, one of the possible causes of this decline is
the relationship they maintain with their equals or the so-called peer pressure
leading to conformism. Santrock (2003) argues that conformism is produced when
individuals adopt other people’s attitudes or behaviours because of a real or
imaginary pressure.
Jensen (2003), referring to Arnett (2002), argues against the previous theory:

Adolescence may also be a time of life with a more pronounced openness to diverse
cultural beliefs and behaviors. Adolescents have developed enough maturity to think
in more complex ways about that which is new and different, and often are many
areas of life in which they have not yet settle on particular beliefs and behaviors.
(Jensen, 2003: 191)
 To finish, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2001)
argues that intercultural education is necessary to overcome conflicts in adolescence:
In an intercultural approach, it is a central objective of language education to
promote the favourable development of the learner’s whole personality and sense of
identity in response to the enriching experience of otherness in language and culture.
(2001: 1)

Intercultural education fosters the discovery of your own identity and personality
through other cultures and languages. Glaser, Guilherme, Méndez García and Mughan
(2007) support the idea that:

Awareness of the self and the other, getting to know oneself, reflecting upon one’s
culture-bound upbringing and standpoint and analyzing in depth one’s norms, values,
beliefs and behaviours is probable the starting point towards accepting,
understanding and enjoying otherness. (2007: 31)
 3.5. Conclusion.
Even though there are many initiatives and projects that aim at intercultural
development at all levels of education, I would only like to underline the importance of
incorporating intercultural aspects within the curriculum.
Intercultural approaches are, in a sense, innovative, and innovation in education is
relevant in Spain at the moment. I wonder whether co-operative learning, group work
and other interculturally-oriented tasks are permeating schools in Spain.
Although there are a plethora of tasks useful for intercultural learning, not all of
them are feasible in a single lesson plan or in secondary education. In the didactic unit
that comes next, some of them have been incorporated, in particular those that fall
within the category of working “practices” that Moran (2001) identified in connection
with the dimensions of culture.
The first part of this Project has discussed the importance of implementing an
intercultural approach in education. The positive aspects that emerge from its
implementation have the potential to educate adolescents in a society which thrives to
achieve peace and respect between cultures. Likewise, intercultural education, as
many experts have demonstrated, it not just a theoretical construct, but also an
approach that can be put into practice in the classroom.
 4. The adventure of the coming of age

4.1. Justification
This lesson plan has been designed to contribute to an intercultural education and
education for citizenship in Compulsory Secondary Education.
Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación (Organic Law of Education
2/2006 of May 3rd), but also Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre, para la mejora de
la calidad educativa (Organic Law for the Improvement of the Quality of Education of
8/2013 of December 9th), defines a ‘didactic unit’ as a short-term planning unit that
embraces a series of activities and tasks designed for a particular group of students. It
must contain a final goal, (key) competences, objectives, contents, methodological
orientations and evaluation criteria.
The Organic Law of Education 2/2006 of May 3rd sets the aims of Spanish
education, among which we can highlight, in article 2.1 (p 351), the importance of
‘Education in the practice of tolerance and freedom within the democratic principles of
society and in the prevention of conflicts and peaceful conflict resolution’ and
‘Education for peace, respect for human rights, community life, social cohesion,
cooperation and solidarity between nations’. In this same article, it is also stated that
inter-culturality is ‘an enriching factor in society’ and the necessity of having the
‘capacity to communicate in one or more foreign languages’:
The purpose of compulsory secondary education is to ensure that students acquire
the basic cultural elements especially humanistic, artistic, scientific and
technological; develop and consolidate study and work habits; prepare for their
incorporation into higher education or the labour market and also to educate them in
the exercise of their rights and obligations as citizens. (Article 22.2:50)

Article 23(51) specifies that students need to:

Accept their responsibilities, know and exercise their rights, respect others, show
tolerance, cooperate with other people and groups, practise dialogue, adopt human
rights as common values of a plural society and be prepared to take part in
democratic citizenship.

As well as ‘understand and express themselves appropriately in one or more

foreign languages’. (Article 23: 53)
For all these reasons, this lesson plan contributes to the development of the
General Objectives of the Stage and the Area of Compulsory Secondary Education with

1
The number of this pages belongs to the document published by the Ministry of Education and Science
of Spain(2006b): Organic Law of Education (Ley Orgánica de Educación – LOE), which can be found at
http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Spain/Spain_LOE_eng.pdf
a view to attaining the so-called Key Competences, as specified in the Real Decreto
1631/2006(Royal Decree 1631/2006) and the Decreto 231/2007 (Decree 231/2007).
This didactic unit represents the fifth one in the Course Planning for the 4th Grade
of Compulsory Secondary Education and consequently has been included within the
School’s Educational Project, that is to say, the prescriptive document by means of
which the Official Curriculum (or also the Basic Curricular Design) is adapted to
different educational contexts.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) underlines
the importance of the cultural approaches in foreign language teaching. The CEFRL
(2001: 1) describes: ‘what knowledge and skills they [learners] have to develop so as to
be able to act effectively.’ In the same way, the CEFRL claims that ‘the description also
covers the cultural context in which language is set’. (2001: 1) Likewise, it establishes
general and communicative language competences in order to carry out the tasks
required to deal with these objectives.
 4.2. Background information
The didactic unit has been designed to be implemented in a private school in Jaén:
‘Santa María de la Capilla’. In this school, students come from middle-upper class
families and their parents are very frequently involved in school activities. An
important fact is that there are no discipline problems and the teacher can work with
students in a favourable atmosphere. On the other hand, some restrictions are
imposed, like strict silence before, during and after every lesson. For this reason,
cooperative or communicative tasks are difficult to be carried out. Nonetheless, at
higher levels and in small groups, students may be encouraged to develop these kinds
of activities.
At this school, pupils are divided into four levels ‘A’ to ‘D’. In level ‘A’, students
have a high command of English; meanwhile, in level ‘D’ some students need
reinforcement activities because their progress is slower, although, broadly speaking,
there are no discipline problems at any level.
Taking into account the theme of the lesson plan, I consider that the adequate age
to be taught is among students who are between fifteen and sixteen, that is, the
fourth course of Compulsory Secondary Education. In particular, this lesson plan has
been designed to be carried out in a class where there are twenty-eight pupils in level
‘B’ (seventeen girls and eleven boys). They sit in pairs without a previously fixed
arrangement; however, teachers can make some changes if the circumstances or the
tasks require it.
Chronologically, the didactic unit is implemented in six sessions of fifty/fifty-five
minutes each and during the third and final term. As students of the fourth course of
Compulsory Secondary Education have three English sessions per week, the whole
didactic unit will be studied during two weeks.
Regarding previous aspects analysed in class, learners seem to have achieved the
objectives in the units that precede, given their constant work in class. It is also
important to mention that religion is a compulsory subject in all the stages in Primary,
Secondary or Non-Compulsory education.
 4.3. Objectives and key competences
The way in which didactic objectives relate to both objectives of stage and area and to key
competences is shown in the following chart.

DIDACTIC OBJECTIVES STATE FL COMPETENCES

OBJECTIVES OBJECTIVES
1. To develop cooperative
strategies to use the internet to 1. Communicative
obtain the required information competence in
about other countries traditions. RD one’s mother
2. To interact orally with other 1631/2006 tongue and in a
classmates, sharing personal foreign language.
opinions by means of expressions a, b, d, e, g, 3. Knowledge and
2
and structures that appear h, i, j interaction with
throughout the unit. the physical and
3. To extract general and specific 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, natural world.
information from a written text 6, 7, 8, 93 4. Digital and
and different scenes of a film. technological
4. To recognise some basic verbs competence.
followed ‘-ing’ or by ‘to 5. Social and civic
infinitive’. competence.
5. To recognise and use vocabulary D 231/2007 6. Cultural and
about the coming of age. artistic
6. To show willingness, tolerance a, b, c, d, f expressions.
and openness in the process of 7. Learning to
knowing other cultures and to be learn.
able to mediate between every 8. Autonomy and
conflicting interpretation of facts, personal initiative.
events or cultural assumptions
that may appear in the same
process.

2
State Objectives are reproduced in appendix 1. The objectives which are included in this table appear in
bold in the appendix.
3
Foreign Language Objectives reproduced in appendix 2.
 4.4. Contents
Didactic objectives bear a close relation to contents, which help students to
achieve all the didactic, stage or foreign language objectives and competences.
The contents of the didactic unit proposed are specified below:

Listening, Speaking and Interaction Reading and Writing

Listening to an interview with a teenager Reading a text about the rituals of the
who speaks about his hobbies. coming of age.
Listening to and watching video Searching and reading information on the
explaining common activities British Internet about British hobbies and sweet
teenagers do in their free time. sixteen parties.
Answering comprehension questions. Planning well-organized written texts.
Participating in oral discussions involving Writing an article giving their opinion
teenagers’ life style. about a film scene.
Exchanging information with their Identifying general and specific
partner. information in a written text

Linguistic awareness and reflection upon Linguistic awareness and reflection upon
language language
Linguistic knowledge Linguistic knowledge
1. FUNCTIONS 2. VOCABULARY
 Giving and asking for opinions  Vocabulary related to the coming
about current relevant issues for of age rituals.
young people.
3. GRAMMAR 4. PHONETICS
 Verbs followed by to infinitive or  Pronunciation and intonation of
‘–ing’. basic words and expressions.

Linguistic awareness and reflection upon

Sociocultural aspects and multicultural
the language awareness
Reflection upon one’s learning Interest in investigating other people’s
 Participating actively in group
culture, in particular, other practices and
work. perspectives.
 Showing their abilities in terms of
Positive attitude towards other cultures
and countries.
oral and written production.
 Showing self-confidence when Willingness to mediate between
speaking about one’s own conflicting opinions or situation.
experiences and feelings. Showing respect towards other cultural
practices.
 4.5. Cross-curricular issues
Among the set of cross-curricular contents framed by the educational system (La
Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación (Organic Law of Education 2/2006 of May
3rd)), this didactic unit deals specifically with intercultural education. since the objective
of this lesson plan is to favour the development of intercultural communicative
competence in the Foreign Language classroom. As mentioned above, students need
to develop attitudes and skills in order to understand, tolerate, coexist and mediate
between different cultures and their traditions, rituals or practices.
Together with multicultural education, education for peace is fostered since it is
necessary to show respect and comprehension in today’s multicultural society,
rejecting any kind of stereotyped thoughts or ideas.
Finally, coeducation is also fostered in this lesson plan, not only encouraging
respect for other countries, but also the equality in rights and opportunities between
people of different genre.
4.6. Interdisciplinarity
For the development of this unit, cooperation with areas, such as geography and
history, information and communication technology, religion and education for
citizenship, is needed.
Students will carry out activities, where they need prior knowledge of geography
(U.S.A, Britain or Australia), history and religion to study the Jewish religion and Amish
or Confucian traditions.
They also need to show abilities, previously developed in subjects like computer
sciences, to be able to create a pecha-kucha (a PowerPoint of twenty slides presented
in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, twenty seconds per slide), search the Internet, or present
a creative speech. To finish, without the connection between education for citizenship
and interculturality, this lesson plan would not be successful.
4.7. Methodology
All activities developed in this section have been designed to foster communication
between pupils with the intention to create an atmosphere of active participation,
where they can be confident when sharing feelings, sensations and opinions. As
remarked before, this didactic unit will be carried out throughout six sessions of 50-55
minutes.
To understand how this didactic unit is organized, it is necessary to know that all
the sheets or activities, to be shown to and completed by students, are presented in
orange boxes ( ). On the contrary, the transcriptions of videos, listening tasks and film
scenes are shaded in blue ( ).
 It is also important to underline that I have designed myself all the activities and
exercises proposed. Only texts and the self-assessment have been adapted from the
resources pointed out below.
This is an overview of the six lessons and their estimated timings:

LESSON 1: Breaking the ice LESSON 2: What do you do in your free

time?
Pre-reading (10’): brainstorming of Warm-up (15’): listening to an interview
different ritual, traditions or practices in and answering related comprehension
the coming of age process. questions.

Reading (30’): ritual of coming of age in Task (30’): co-operative activity to search
different cultures and comprehension for information on internet in order to do
questions. a pecha-kucha.

Post-reading (10’): discussion about what Follow-up (10’): discussion comparing

they have read. their own culture to American, Australian
or British culture.

LESSON 3: Don’t be hater LESSON 4: One, two, three, action!

Warm up (15’): listening to and watching Warm up (5’): reading and correcting a
a video about what teenagers do in their text about the plot of the film ‘Boyhood’.
free time.
Task (35’): watching different scenes of
Grammar task (20’): grammar activities the film and answering comprehension
about the use of verbs plus to infinitive or questions.
‘-ing’.
Completing vocabulary activities about
Vocabulary task (15’): card game with the film.
slang expressions.
Writing task (15’): expressing advice and
opinion about a scene of the film.

LESSON 5: My sweet sixteen LESSON 6: Make a wish!

Warm up (8-10’): correcting their own Candle ceremony (30’): oral exposition
mistakes on the previous writing session.
Task – Cooperative activity (25’): Filling
in a quiz about a sweet sixteen party.
Self-assessment (20’): questionnaire and
Writing task (15’): invitation to a sweet writing.
sixteen party.

Preparation of candles ceremony (10’):

prepare an oral exposition for the next
session.
This table shows the different symbols used throughout that are found throughout the
different sessions to highlight what type of activity they refer to.

Whole class Pair work Individual work Group work

involved
 4.7.1. Session 1 – Breaking the ice
Pre-reading and introduction (10’): Brain storming
The teacher asks students how a person knows that he or she is no longer a
teenager and the kind of practices, rituals or ceremonies that represent
this change. The teacher will write down on the blackboard or the
white board the students’ suggestions and ideas.

BRAINSTORMING: Rite of passage

Coming of age Civil and legal responsibility

Driving licence vs.

Driver’s license Right to vote

Reading (30’)
The teacher shows the following slides that explain some of the rituals that
teenagers from different cultures have to go through to become adults.
Students complete the following tasks:

1. Read carefully the information about the different coming of age rituals and
answer these questions:
a. Are there different rituals of the coming of age? Why?
b. Why do Jewish boys and girls celebrate Bar and Bat Mitzvahs?
c. Which are the different ranges of age in which teens become adults?
d. Does every Confucian woman and girl wear hair buns and pins?
2. Are these statements true or false? If they are false, please correct them
using your own words.
a. Maasai rites of passage finish after marriage.
b. After Rumspringa celebration Amish youngsters cannot drink alcohol,
smoke tobacco or use modern technologies.
c. Maasai families do not feel disappointed with their teens’ behaviour.
d. Girls and boys celebrate their sweet sixteen.
1. Complete the following sentences with the words that appear in the box
below.
responsible for - faith - youth - driving licence - coming of age - upbringing - right
to vote
a. I don’t understand the ______ today. Their way of thinking is different
from how we used to think.
b. Congratulations for your _____________! Now, be careful with the car!
c. Some people think that one’s behaviour depends on one’s_________.
d. I’m legally adult this year, so I have the _____________.
e. If you are not ___________ your stuff, you will always lose things.
f. You cannot buy alcohol until the ___________
g. You need to have _________ and hope for the best.

Post- reading: Discussion (10’)

The teacher leads a discussion in which students need to express themselves by
giving their opinions, explaining their own experiences, and thinking about their own
reactions when they meet people from another country. It is paramount that the
teacher makes sure that no stereotypes or prejudices are reinforced in this discussion.
The whole class is involved.
These are possible prompts for the discussion:

 Which other rituals of passage do you know?

  Do you have the feeling that you have now new responsibilities?
 How would you explain all the changes you are experiencing to an Amish girl or
boy?
 Do you think that the Maasai rite helps boys to be better adults? (The teacher
needs to be familiar with this rite so that no misunderstandings leading to
prejudice against Maasi culture arise).
Teacher will provide the following chart, which contains basic utterances for
expressing agreement and disagreement to help students express their opinions
respectfully.

 Expressing agreement  Expressing disagreement

o In my opinion o I don't agree.

o Personally, I think... o I' m not sure about that.
o I believe that... o On the contrary...
o I would suggest.
 4.7.2. Session 2 – What do you do in your free time?

Warm-up: Listening (15’)

1. Listen twice to a short extract of an interview with Mike. Mike speaks about
his hobbies and leisure activities. Then answer the questions below.
a. How many countries has Mike visited? Which countries?
b. Make a list of all the activities Mike likes doing.
c. How many sibling has Mike got?
d. Which typical dish does Mike speak about?

The transcript of the interview is reproduced here:

From 0:00 to 01:06
Interviewer Ok Mike, could you tell me something about yourself?
Mike: I was born in 1992 in Nigeria and then I moved to France for a bit for my dad’s
job and we moved to England when I was eight years old. And I now live in Caversham,
in Reading.
Interviewer: Do you remember Nigeria?
Mike: Not really but we’ve got videos and CDs and things of what it was like. But of
course cos I was a baby at the time, I don’t really remember anything. But my older
sister does because she was four or five years old so she’s got memories of friends and
things there.
From 02.25 to 05.19
Interviewer: Oh dear. What about your hobbies, what sort of things are you interested
in doing?
Mike: Most of my free time I spend in town with friends or at home cooking with my
parents. And we have guinea pigs so I often have to look after them and we used to
have a cat but it died, so I used to have to look after that. And I play football for
Caversham Boys and we have training on Tuesday nights and Fridays nights and then
sometimes on Saturday mornings as well, and then we have games on Sundays.
Interviewer: What’s your position?
Mike: I play left back in the defence.
Interviewer: Who’s your favourite footballer?
Mike: I’d say my favourite footballer is Thierry Henry probably, just because he’s so
good. But it would, I mean it used to be Jay-Jay Okocha because I support Bolton but
now he’s left it’s got to be Thierry Henry.
Interviewer V: Who’s your favourite left back? If you have one.
Mike: I’d say Ashley Cole is definitely my favourite footballer for the fact he’s always
everywhere, he runs so much, he does so much work, so that’s what I really like, is the
way he plays.
Interviewer: I was interested that you said you do quite a lot of cooking with your
parents. Is that something you enjoy?
Mike: Yeah it is actually because, well mostly what I do is I do it for my little brothers
and sisters because well I’ve got quite a big family, a family of five children. So I cook
for their dinners which is quite nice because they’re always SO chatty about it and like
to talk to me about it. So also it’s not so much for the cooking I also do it because they
like to talk about it with me. It’s something to talk about and something I can improve
on with other people's help and rather than getting stuck into my own life.
Interviewer: What sort of food do you cook?
Mike: Well I used to do cookies and ice-cream and sort of puddings and things, but
now I do Yorkshire pudding, lamb chops, spaghetti. Pretty, normally pretty simple
meals but occasionally I’ll do it on a, for a Sunday roast or something which we like to
have in our family after church or whatever in the morning. We have a big meal at
lunch time which I like to help my dad cook.
Interviewer: Yorkshire pudding is something very specially English. Could you describe
what it is?
Mike: It's basically just batter which is just cooked in an Aga and it’s really soft and it
can be quite crunchy on the outside, but it’s really soft and it’s full of air on the inside,
so it it’s not particularly filling but it’s very nice because of the texture.
Adapted from: http://sacodeyl.inf.um.es/sacodeyl-search2/faces/search.jsp

2. Are these sentences true or false? In case they are false, correct them using
your own words.
a. Mike has been living in France.
b. Mike remembers Nigeria.
c. He always plays football on Saturday mornings.
d. He doesn´t like cooking because he chats with his sisters and brothers.
e. Mike is able to cook more difficult dishes that he did at the beginning.
Task: Hobbies in different countries (30’)
Students need to prepare a pecha-kucha, a power point presentation with no
more than 20 slides. Normally, presenters only have 20 seconds to explain each slide.
However, students are asked to prepare only 15 slides, but they do not have more
than two minutes to explain them to the rest of their classmates. This kind of
presentations are concise and dynamic.
The class is divided in 5 or 6 groups of 4 or 5 members; each group is in charge of
searching on the Internet for specific information about one of these three topics:
Australia, USA and Britain. They can use the following links to search for the
information.

How teenagers spend their spare time in

- Australia?
o http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/teenagers_and_free_time.html
o http://rcg.org/youth/articles/0502-a.html
- Britain?
o http://resources.woodlands-
junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/weekends.htm
o http://referaty.atlas.sk/cudzie-jazyky/anglictina/42299/?print=1
o Photocopies of the Oxford guide to British and American Culture. (pp.
598, 135)
- USA?
o http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/1947/How-Americans-Spend-Their-Time-
HOW-DO-AMERICANS-LIKE-SPEND-THEIR-LEISURE-TIME.html
o http://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/LEISURE.HTM
o Photocopies of the Oxford guide to British and American Culture. pp.
598, 135)

Once all the students have enough information, the members are again re-grouped
in new teams, which will have information about all the topics. The new group (4 or 5
pupils) have to prepare the pecha-kucha of 2 minutes. They have some guiding
questions to follow as an outline for their presentation:

 Which sports do they do?

 Is family important for them?
 How much time do they spend on leisure activities?
 What are Youth Clubs about?
Post-task: Pair discussion (10’)
3. Think about life in your own community and discuss in pairs these aspects:
 Do American teens have different hobbies?
 What about British or Australian teens?
 Have you ever tried playing cricket? Would you like to play it?
 Which other activities would you like to try?
 Which activity would you do with an Australian friend?
 4.7.3. Session 3–Don’t be a hater

Warm up: Listening (15’)

The session start with an analysis of a video that explains the activities some young
people from England get involved in during their free time. Students watch the video
without subtitles. Learners’ worksheet appears below.
1. Write down which activities you usually do in your free time. Then watch the
following video and jot down all the activities these young people from
England do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94kCN1CX1H8 (from minute 0:00 to 2:38)

Narrator: British people spend their free time in a lot of different ways: they do sport,
they watch sport, they visit interesting places, and they have hobbies. Have you tried
any of these?
Narrator: What do you do in your free time?
Girl: I like to watch television and listen to music a lot, but I do go on Internet as well.
Boy: I like to skateboard and rollerblade in my free time.
Boy: I play rugby … am in my free time for Oxford Rugby Club, and I also play tennis.
Girl: In my free time, I usually play sport which is usually tennis if the weather is nice,
or swimming.
Boy: I like playing rugby, I’m member of a rugby team. I like swimming, playing tennis
and football.
Boy: Play football for a football team, play a lot of tennis as well.
Girl: I play rugby or cricket or going sailing.
Girl: I play sport …am going to town, see my friends.
Girl: In my free time I go to a drama group and a dance group.
Narrator: So what are the top ten leisure activities in Britain? The most popular activity
for British people outside their own home is, going to the pub. Over the last ten or
twenty years, pubs have changed a lot. People don’t just go to pub for a drink. Almost
most pubs serve meals nowadays and many pubs have live music, karaoke
competitions and quiz nights. The second most popular activity is going to a
restaurant. And the third…
Narrator: Young people especially like going out for fast food. The number of fast food
restaurants in Britain has increased about ten times since 1992. And after fast food?
Narrator: The fourth most popular activity is going to the library. Surprisingly, this is
more popular than going to the cinema, although the number of people going to the
cinema has almost doubled since 1990, and the number of cinemas has more than
doubled too.

2. Listen again and then answer the following questions.

a. How many activities do you have in common with these young people?
b. Which are the five more popular hobbies for English people?
c. Which hobby does surprise you the most?

Grammar tasks: Verbs followed by To-infinitive or ‘-ing’ (20’)

3. Several sentences have been extracted from the video. Write the correct form
of the verbs in brackets using to-infinitive or ‘–ing’.

a. I like _________ (skateboard) and _________ (rollerblade) in my free

time.
b. I like _________ (play) rugby; I’m member of a rugby team. I like
_______ (swim), ________ (play) tennis and football.
c. The most popular activity for British people outside their own home is
_________ (go) to the pub.
d. Young people especially like __________ (go) out for fast food.
e. What do the British do at home in their free time? ___________ (listen)
to the radio or CDs is popular.
f. People spend a lot of time __________ (visit) or __________ (entertain)
their friends and family.

After correcting this exercise, the teacher can provide further information about
the structures that contain to-infinitive or ‘–ing’. The following chart can be used to
help learners understand the difference between both structures.
 TO INFINITIVE EXAMPLES VERB + -ING EXAMPLES
To express purpose I study to pass my After prepositions I have just read a
exams. book about
becoming an adult.

After: There is too much As subjects or objects of Driving a car is more

food to eat. a sentence. dangerous than it
 too
looks.
 enough

After:  I decided to After:  I dislike eating

 agree practise  dislike vegetables
 begin basketball.  mention  I practice playing
 decide  I have learnt to  miss the piano every
 learn typewrite.  practise day.
 offer  I would like to be  suggest  My friends
 want millionaire.  forbid suggested
 would like having dinner in
a new
restaurant.

 Note: Verb ‘to like’ admits both to infinitive or verb + ‘-ing’.

4. Complete this dialogue between a son and his mother. Write the correct form
of the verbs in brackets using to-infinitive or ‘–ing’.
Son: I need my keys _________ (open) the door.
Mother: You don’t need to open the door.
Son: Yes, I do because if I decide ___________ (go) for __________ (hang) out, I would
like ________ (come) in again.
Mother: I forbid you to go out. __________ (study) is what you need.
Son: But I have agreed _________ (meet) my friends at 6.
Mother: Well…. I suggest ________ (ring) them.
5. Could you finish these sentences?
a. I miss……
b. Recently, I’ve learnt ………..
c. I would like……..
d. My friends suggested …….
e. I dislike….
Vocabulary task: Learning slang expressions (15’)
The teacher writes five slang expressions on the board. In groups of three or four,
students prepare mini-dramas, which contain these slang expressions. The different
slang expressions and their explanations appear in cards. Finally, each group performs
their mini-play and other groups guess what the meaning of the slang expression is.

TOPE
TOPE MY
MYBADBAD
It has
It has
thethe
same
samemeaning
meaningas ‘my
as DO
DO ME
ME
IfIfsomething
somethingisis‘tope’,
‘tope’,it’s
it’s ‘my
mistake’
mistake’
or ‘opps’.
or ‘opps’. To
To be
be oneself
oneself and
and do
do not
not worry
worry
cool
coolto
toteenagers.
teenagers. Example:
Example:--Why
Whyhas hasthe
theglass
glass about what
about what other
other people
people says.
says.
Example:
Example: I don’t
I don’t worry
mind what
what other
fall
borken?
down?
Example:
Example:
‘This‘This
filmfilm
is tope’
is other people say, I do me
people say. I do me
-My badMy bad
tope’

CRAY-CRAY
CRAY-CRAY HATER
Something which is really crazy
Something which is really crazy Teens may call you ‘hater’
or not funny.
or not funny. when you ruin their fun.
Example: Why did you do that?
Example: Why did you do that?
That was cray-cray Example: Don’t be a hater.
That was cray-cray
 4.7.4. Session 4 – One, two, three, action!

In this session, students will watch five subtitled scenes of the film Boyhood, which
is likely to help them understand the stages they are going through as teenagers.

Warm up: Knowing about Boyhood (50’)

1. There are six mistakes in this text. Read it, find out the mistakes and
correct them4.
Boyhood is an American film directed by Richard Linklater. It was shot from 2002 to
2013 (throughout 12 years) to showing Mason’s life. The film reveals the different
changes that Mason Evan is experimenting from childhood to adolescence. He grow up
in Texas with his sister Samatha and his mother. Despite the fact that his parents are
divorced and his mother has moved on several occasions, Samantha and Mason are
always in contact with their father. His mother and his father meet when they were
very young. His mother is a university professor of Psychology and his father an
unsuccessful musician who remarries and has another baby.
Mason enjoys to take photos and decides to start a Photography degree on the
university. However, he encounters some difficulties.

Tasks: Watching the film (35’)

The teacher shows five different scenes with subtitles from the film ‘Boyhood’.
Students watch them twice and then answer the questions that follow each scene. All
the scenes have been extracted from IFC Films (2014) Boyhood.

4
The mistakes are now underlined but they will not be underlined in students’ worksheet.
Scene 1
From 01:32:05 to 01:34:47
Father: Hey, there, Cliff
Grandfather: Hey, how you doing?
Father: Good. How you doing?
Grandmother: Hi, birthday boy!
Grandfather: It’s good to see you.
Father: Ah, it’s great to see you. Yeah.
Grandfather: You made it all right, huh?
Father: Yeah, we sure did. We sure did.
Grandmother: How are you, darling?
Let´s just get this one…
Father: All right, we ready?
Annie: Yeah.
Grandmother: Wait.
Father: Hey, Sam.
Grandmother: Wait, wait, wait.
Father: Come on. Hey, still sleeping
here?
Grandfather: Oh, yeah.
Father: Hey, buddy.
(All singing happy birthday)
Father: Make a wish, make a wish. Real
good! Presents!
Grandmother: Wait, wait, wait. Here,
sweetie.
Father: Sam, would you get us a knife
so we can cut this up?All right.
Grandmother: I hope you like it. I heard
you didn’t have one, so. It’s a Bible.
This is your first Bible. Look, there’s
your name.
Mason: Wow.
Grandmother: In gold. And wait, wait,
wait. Look at this. It’s a red-letter
edition, and that means that everything
that Jesus said is in red.
Mason: Thank you.
Grandmother: You like it? All right. I
love you sweetie. Happy birthday.
Annie: And this one’s from us.
Father: Oh, yeah, here. It’s not going to
make all your dreams come true here.
Just keep your expectations low. No,
you need it. It’s… come on, right? You
gotta have it. You need this. You got life
ahead of you.
Annie: and the shirt is blue.
Father: You got dances and job
interviews. Here, I’m going to get it all
wrinkled here.
Grandfather: Mason? Come on here,
son.
All: uh-oh.
Grandfather: pull that off. There’s a 20-
gauge shotgun.
Mason: Wow.
Grandfather: My dad gave it to me
when I was a little younger than you,
and his dad gave it to him. Well, you’re
15 and I’d like for you to have it, all
right? Here, you hold it. Yeah?
Mason: Thank you. how to fire it. And teach you a little bit
of safety.
Grandfather: Congratulations, son. I’ll
teach you how to clean it, teach you

2. Answer the following questions in pairs:

1. According to his father, which is the significance of the presents that Mason
receives?
a. Bible
b. Suit
c. Shotgun
2. Why are those presents important for him?
3. Have you received any of these gifts?
4. Can you mention two more examples of relevant presents you have been
given?

Scene 2
From 01:39:23 to 01:42:19
Teacher: How long you been in here,
Mason?
Mason: I’m not sure.
Teacher: I’m sure. All class. Did you
complete your image diary?
Mason: Not yet.
Teacher: Completed your, uh, digital
contact sheet?
Mason: Not quite, but it’s not gonna
take me long.
Teacher: ‘Not yet’. ‘Not quite’. Dark
room time is extra-curricular. I mean,
technically, you don’t ever have to be
in here these days, and certainly not
until you’ve completed your
assignments. That’s the deal.
Mason: Sorry.
Teacher: I’m worry about you, Mason.
Mason: Why is that?
Teacher: I’ll tell you why. The images
you’re turning in, they’re cool. You’re
looking at things in a really unique way.
Got a lot of natural talent.
Mason: Thanks.
Teacher: Yeah, but that and 50 cents
will just get you a cup of coffee in this
old world. I’ve met a lot of talented
people over the years. How many of
them made it professionally discipline,
commitment and a really good work
ethic? I can tell you. I can count it on
two fingers. Zero. It’s not gonna
happen for you, Mason. The world is
too competitive. There are too many
talented people who are willing to work
hard and a butt load of morons who are
untalented who are more than willing
to surpass you. As a matter of fact, a lot
of them are sitting in that classroom
out there right now, hmm? You know
what they’re doing? They’re doing their
assignments. Which is what you’re
supposed to be doing, but you’re not.
You’re in here. Now why is that? You
special, mason?
want them sorted and I want to see
them very first thing Monday. You want
to know why I’m doing this?
Mason: I guess.
Teacher: Who do you want to be,
Mason? What do you want to do?

Mason: No, but the things you’re
talking about, like work ethic or
whatever, I feel like I do work pretty
hard. I spend the whole weekend
taking pictures a lot of times.
Teacher: You like football, Mason?
Mason: Not really.
Mason: I want to take pictures. Make
art.
Teacher: Any dipshit can take pictures,
Mason. Art, that’s special. What can
you bring to it that nobody else can?
Mason: That’s what I’m trying to find
out.

Teacher: Yeah, I know you don’t. That’s
why I’ve just assigned you to shoot the
football game tonight. Okay? It starts at
7:30, I want you to get there early, I
want you to shoot a full card, 300
images I want, them downloaded, I
Teacher: Try harder. Maybe in 20 years
you can call old M. Turlington and you
can say, ‘Thank you, sir, for that terrific
darkroom chat we had that day.’ Get
back to class and do your work.

Students will have 2 minutes to think about these questions individually. Then, the
teacher will ask for volunteer to share their answers.

1. According to Mason’s teacher, which aspects are important to be successful in

life?
2. Are there any other characteristics important for you?
3. The teacher says to Mason that the ‘world is too competitive’. Is your world
competitive?
4. Taking into account the teacher’s ideas, would you give Mason a piece of
advice? Which one/s?
5. Can you guess the meaning of these expressions?
a. That’s the deal!
b. Very first thing.
Scene 3
From 01:51:38 to 01:53:00
Mason: You want one?
April: Oh God!
Mason: She didn’t even touch them,
seriously. I watched her the whole
time.
April: I bet you did watch her, you little
pervert. It’s like we’re on a date.
Cheers.
Mason: It’s a night of romance.
April: Yeah, except I’m not gonna kiss
you. I will blow you, though.
Restaurant chief: Mason! We are in the
weeds out here!
Mason: I’m going as fast as I can.
Chief: Oh, then I must be confused
then, ‘cause I just saw you chatting it
up with April, when I got a salad bar
that needs a refill, I got a six-top two
four-tops I can`t use because they
haven’t been bussed!
Mason: Enrique is not here. I’m trying.
Chief: Well, while you’re trying, we’re
dying! What am I supposed to tell my
customers? ‘Oh, I’m sorry that your
table’s got dirty plates on it, but
Mason’s trying. At least that’s what he
told me. After he was flirting with April
and eating your leftover shrimp.’ Now
it is a challenge out there today, I know,
but I wanna share something with you.
I got you pegged for fry cook this
summer, that’s a lot more
responsibility. It’s also more money.
How’s that sound?
Mason: Good.
Chief: I know you can handle that
money, but can you take the
responsibility? I think you can because I
believe in you. But I need you on the
floor. Now leave the dishes. Giddy up.
All right, come on! Don’t let me down!

3. Answer the following questions in pairs.

a. Where is Mason?
b. What is he doing?
c. Why is he doing that?
d. Why does he need to be more responsible?
e. Think about the possible meaning of the following words:
 We are in the weeds
 Shrimp
 Leftover
Scene 4
From 01:58:43 to 02:03:55
Mason: Nice shot.
Samantha: Yeah, just give the lady at
the front y’all’s IDs and, uh, she should
let you in.
Sheena: It’s Room 206, right?
Awesome. It’s not weird that we’re
staying there, is it?
Samantha: No, it’s fine. Have fun.
Sheena: Thank you. How long have you
guys been dating?
Samantha: About three months. Yeah,
we met at a party and it’s been chill.
Sheena: Yeah, he seems cool.
Samantha: Yeah, he is.
Sheena: Does he go to UT, too? Cool.
Samantha: Yeah.
Sheena: What does he study?
Samantha: He’s studying history and
Italian, I think, his minor, yeah.
Sheena: Does he wanna teach Italian?
Samantha: I think he’s still figuring stuff
out. Yeah. He’s figuring out. He’s smart.
Smart, yeah. So, where are you thinking
about living when you come here?
Sheena: Um, I’m not really sure yet.
We’re gonna look at apartments
tomorrow. Um… But I know my parents
sort of were expecting me to live in a
dorm. But I’m paying my way through
college so it doesn’t really matter that
much.
Samantha: you don’t have to listen to
your parents after you turn 18.
Especially if they’re not helping you
financially.
Sheena: That’s what I figured.
Samantha: But living in a dorm isn’t so
bad.
Sheena: Yeah?
Samantha: I mean, especially if it’s a
coed dorm.
Sheena: Yeah.
Samantha: I mean, I’ve never been
around so many cute guys at once. Like,
college is really fun.
Sheena: I’m excited.
Samantha: It’s great, yeah.
(Music)
(At the restaurant)
Stranger: The last death at the Hoover
Dam construction site was his son,
Patrick Tierney, who died on December
20th, 1935, exactly 13 years to the day.
Sheena: See those sorority girls over
there? I’ve just decided, if you delete
your Facebook page, I’m pledging.
Mason: Yeah, in just a few years that’s
you, and that’s gonna be me.
Strangers: …inlaid into the terrazzo
floors was a star map, a celestial map of
heavenly bodies so accurately displayed
that one could chart the procession of
the pole star 14,000 years into the
future, such that future generations Waitress: Anything else?
upon… Sheena: Uh… more ‘queso’?
Sheena: I wonder what his deal is. I Mason: Yeah…. Jesus.
mean. He obviously has money to eat
here. Sheena: What?

Mason: He just said. He’s a UT Mason: I don’t know, doesn’t it all

professor, tenure and everything.
Sheena: Look at all these people.
What’re they even doing here at 3:00 in
the morning?
Mason: What are we even doing here
at 3:00 in the morning?
Sheena: We know what we’re doing
here. ‘Queso’. We have a purpose.
Mason: Hell, yeah.
Sheena: Hell, yeah.
Mason: You know, by next summer,
this’ll just be our lives. Staying out all
night, going to shows, whatever we
want.
Sheena: We ever gonna go to class?
Mason: Sometimes.
Sheena: When it feels right. When the
inspiration hits.
seem a little overwhelming? I mean.
College? I mean, I like the idea of being
away from home and gaining skills and
getting better at photography. I just… I
don’t know, I’m not counting on it
being some big transformative
experience.
Sheena: I don’t think it’s that
transformative. I just see it as the next
step.
Mason: But it’s just like a preordained
slot that’s already got your name and
number on it. I don’t think it’s the key
to my future. ‘Cause, I mean look at my
mom. She got her degree and got a
pretty good job. She can pay her bills.
Sheena: I like your mom.
Mason: I like my mom, too. I just
mean… basically she’s still just as
fucking confused as I am.

Mason: Only then.

4. Answer the questions in pairs:

1. How does Mason feel about going to the university?
2. Is it important for Mason and Sheena to go to the College? Why?
3. Would they suffer many changes if they go the College?
4. How important is for you to go to the university?
 5. Match the following words with their meanings:

A social club for women students at

Dorm a US university.
An emotion so strong that you
Sorority cannot think or behave normally.
A large room where a lot of people
Pledge sleep.
To promise seriously and publicly to
Overwhelming do something.
A time during a series of event
Preordained slot when something will happen,
especially because it has been
decided by God.

These definitions have been extracted from Macmillan English dictionary for
advanced learners.

Scene 5
Before watching the scene the teacher will introduce difficult vocabulary items.

1. In pairs, try to guess the meaning of these words. Then, complete

the following sentences.

To be on the same wavelength – Separate oneself from the pack – To be sick to death
Square

a. People think I’m ____________ because I don’t like to go to discos.

b. We listen the same kind of music, we always feel like doing the same
activities, we even think the same thing at the same time. We
definitively are ___________________.
c. She likes to ________________ and be the best students.
d. I’ m __________________ of listening to your complaints.
 2. Match the items in column A with their corresponding synonyms in column B
Column A
Excel
To be pissed
Wing
Tough
From 02:17:19 to 02:21:44
Father: So it sucks. I mean,
the guy’s a college lacrosse
player. What are you gonna do?
Mason: She didn’t even like sports.
Father: You want a beer?
Mason: No, that’s all right.
Father: You can have one.
Mason: It’s okay.
Father: Yeah, well, for what it’s worth,
we´ve all been through the exact same
thing at one point or another.
Mason: It’s not the same though. I
mean, you never got to know her.
Father: No, I know, I know. It’s not the
same.
Mason: I just don’t know what I did
wrong.
Father: Hey, Jimmy. Hey, man.
Jimmy (father’s friend): Hey, Mason.
Father: We´re up here raiding the green
room. Hope that’s okay.
Jimmy: That’s totally cool.
Father: All right.
Column B
To be fed up
Harsh, hard
Improvise
Stand out
Jimmy: Wow! Is that MJ (Mason
Junior)?
Father: Uh-huh, right.
Jimmy: Unbelievable.
Father: well, we just decided to come a
little early, check you out.
Jimmy: That’s cool man, let me finish
up. I’ll be up in a minute.
Father: All right. I guarantee you, you
didn’t do anything wrong. This high
school love things, they never work out.
Here, come here. I mean, everybody’s
just changing so much, you know? The
odd of two young people staying on the
same wavelength are…
Mason: Yeah, but still…
Father: Look, and I also guarantee you
that every day of your life that you
spend crying over some silly girl is a
complete waste of time.
Mason: She wasn’t a silly girl, though. I
mean, she’s a serious person. I really
thought we were…
Father: What?
Mason: I don’t know.
Father: Here’s the truth. Women are
never satisfied, okay? They’re always
looking to potentially trade up, and
that’s, I’m sorry to say, what I think has
happened to you, my fine-feathered
friend.
Mason: What does that even mean?
Father: it means don’t hand over the
control to your self-esteem to Sheila.
Mason: Sheena.
Father: All right. It means you are
responsible for you, not your girlfriend,
not your mom, not me, you. And if you
truly take care of you, you will be
amazed at how much girls like Sheena
start lining up at your front door.
Mason: Great.
Father: You just gotta separate yourself
from the pack in some way. Excel at
something, you know, and then you
have your pick of the litter when the
front-runner hussies start sniffing
around.
Mason: So what you’re saying is I
should take up lacrosse.
Father: Exactly. Or you could, you
know, star a band. Worked for me a
long time ago. I think it’s still working
for Jimmy. Or just keep taking pictures.
Mason: she hated the pictures I took of
her.
Father: I’m sick to death of her, okay? I
only met her a few times, and yes, she
was cute, all right, but truth be told, I
always thought she was a little bit… you
know, a little bit too square for you.
You know, not quite the same vibe.
Mason: You really thought that?
Father: On some subtle, lower level. I
mean, I wasn’t surprised when it turned
out she was interested in some
knucklehead lacrosse player, okay? I
mean, bottom line is, it’s all timing with
these things, you know. I mean, take
your mom and me. I think I probably
turned into the boring, castrated guy
she wanted me to be 15, 20 years ago,
you know? I’m not saying she was
wrong to be pissed, I’m not. I’m just
saying that she could have been a little
more patient, little more forgiving.
Mason: Would have saved me that
parade of drunken assholes. So, what’s
the point?
Father: Of what?
Mason: I don’t know, any of this.
Everything.
Father: Everything? What’s the point? I
mean, I sure as shit don’t know. Neither
does anybody else, okay? We’re just
winging it, you know? The good news is
you’re feeling stuff. And you’ve got to
hold on to that. You do. I mean, you get
older and you don’t feel as much. Your
skin gets tougher. The point is those
pictures you took, thousands of
submissions from all over the state, and
you won.
Mason: Well, I got silver. And nine
other people did too.
Father: I’m gonna kill you. I’m trying to
tell you that I believe in you, Mason. I
think you’re really special, and if some
girl doesn’t see that, then fuck her, you
know.
Jimmy: Hey, this next one of ‘em goes
out to a young man in the house. Know
him since he was just a small boy. Now
he’s all graduated from high school and
making me feel old. Happy high school
graduation, Mason.

1. This is an extract from a dialogue between Mason’s father and Mason. In pairs,
read it and write a composition, between 70 and 90 words, answering the
questions posed by the father from your point of view. Take into account what
you have learnt about American teenagers’ life style.

‘Mason: So, what’s the point?

Father: Of what?
Mason: I don’t know, any of this. Everything.
Father: Everything? What’s the point? I mean, I sure as shit don’t know. Neither
does anybody else, okay? We’re just winging it, you know? The good news is you’re
feeling stuff. And you’ve got to hold on to that. You do. I mean, you get older and
you don’t feel as much. Your skin gets tougher. The point is those pictures you
took, thousands of submissions from all over the state, and you won.’

The teacher provides learners with some guidance. Students may use the following
as an outline.

Introduction: you should refer to Mason doubt.

1st paragraph: importance of going to the university in Spain.

2nd paragraph: importance of going to the university in USA.
Conclusion: recommendation to Mason

They have to hand in the composition at the end of the class.

Post-task: Matching exercise (3’)

Match column A, which are sentences from the film which contain phrasal verbs,
with column B, similar sentences but without phrasal verbs.

Column A
That’s what I trying to find out.
I just saw you chatting it up with April.
Don’t let me down.
We just decided to come a little early,
check you out.
This high school love things, they never
work out.
I mean don’t hand over the control to
your self-esteem to Sheila
I wasn’t surprise when it turned out
she was interested in some
knucklehead lacrosse player.
The good news is you are feeling stuff.
And you’ve got to hold on to that.
Column B
I had to come back home to verify that
lights were turned off.
The presidents handed over the
development of the conference to the
vice-president.
I always keep my faith until the last
minute.
If my football team loses, I never feel
disappointed.
They discover he was cheating them.
I saw you flirting with Noel.
The new dishwasher is out of order.
The award results in being a deception.
 4.7.5. Session 5 – My sweet 16

Warm-up (8-10’)
The teacher writes on the blackboard at least eight sentences with common
mistakes students have committed in the writings handed in the session before.
Students correct these sentences.
Cooperative activity and quiz about a sweet sixteen party (25’)
In groups of four, students look for information about one of the following
four traditions related to teenagers’ sweet sixteen party: the candle ceremony,
father-daughter dance, passing of heirlooms and shoe ceremony.
Then, new groups of four are formed. They have to think about five different
questions concerning the four traditions related to the sweet sixteen party and write
them in a piece of paper. The other groups answer these questions. The group, which
answers more questions correctly, will win.
Follow up: Writing (25’)
Students prepare for their own sweet sixteen party:
1. In groups of three, students have to design an invitation card which will be
uploaded in the blog that the class shares (15’). At home, each student can
contribute to the blog by giving their opinion about any of the invitations
concerning aspects such as the use of language, the design, the content or the
layout. The teacher will encourage them to leave their comments in the blog
allowing pupils to obtain extra 0´05 points in the final mark of the unit if they
make a sound contribution.
2. Each group is also in charge of preparing the candle ceremony (10’). The
ceremony involves choosing sixteen people and saying something nice about
each one as they approach to light a candle. Lighting 16 candles acknowledges
the people who are most important to the birthday celebrant, such as parents,
siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Each group of four
people lights two candles. The teacher lights two more. If they need more time
to finish their presentation, they have to complete it as homework.
This activity is likely to be enjoyed by boys and girls because this is a ceremony that
is not only celebrated by girls, but also more and more frequently by boys in the USA.
Students may need more than fifteen minutes to make the invitation and more than
two minutes to prepare the ceremony.

72
 4.7.6. Session 6 – Make a wish!
Candles ceremony: Oral exposition (30’)

The teacher prepares a cartoon cake where all candles can be lit. Every group
lights their candles.
Self-assessment (20’)
To finish this didactic unit, pupils need to complete the following self-assessment.
This self-assessment as well as the learner’s diary is handed in at the end of the lesson
Attitudes

1 (never) 2 (rarely) 3 (sometimes) 4 (often) 5 (always) 1 2 3 4 5

1. Respect
I show respect to the other person as an equal human
being.
I give space to others to express themselves and I listen
and react to their arguments
I suspend judgment based on first impressions.

2. Tolerance of ambiguity
I show patience when confronted with what is unknown
or unfamiliar.
I interact positively without certainty of what the other
thinks and feels.
I show awareness of the fact that my way of thinking
and acting is influenced by a set of values and norms.

3. Open mindedness and curiosity

I show a friendly interest in people and things I
encounter.
I ask others about their views and opinions.

4. Empathy
I am willing to pay attention to other people's feelings.
I show that I can share other people's feelings.

5. Self-awareness
I accept the fact that I can make mistakes.
I take responsibility for my mistakes.
I ask others for help when I need it.
I adjust my behaviour when I feel it is helpful.
I suggest alternative ways of seeing or doing things.
I show that I accept being challenged.

73
Skills

1 (never) 2 (rarely) 3 (sometimes) 4 (often) 5 (always) 1 2 3 4 5

1. Interaction
I listen attentively to other people.
I make sure that my message is understood the way I
mean it.
I encourage people to express their needs and opinions.
I react supportively to emotions I see around me.
I look for and clarify shared needs and expectations.

2. Multiperspectivity
I look for information in a variety of sources.
I explain my thoughts and actions also considering
outside perspectives.
I express my point of view in connection with both
conflicting and complementary opinions.
I use my imagination to offer different perspectives.

3. Critical thinking
I use all available information and my analytical skills to
verify my interpretations.
I question the interpretations offered by others including
authority figures or authoritative sources.
I offer different ways of interpreting the ideas and
actions of people.
I give clear arguments to explain my thoughts and
choices.

4. Problem solving and collaboration

I offer different perspectives on the problem to solve.
I try to solve the problem.
I support other people when trying to solve the problem.
I actively search for a solution together with the other
people concerned.
I make others feel comfortable in the group when faced
with a problem.

Knowledge

1 (never) 2 (rarely) 3 (sometimes) 4 (often) 5 (always) 1 2 3 4 5

1. Knowledge about interaction
I clarify meanings to avoid misunderstandings.

74
I show that I understand that different forms of
interaction have different aims and rules.

2. Knowledge about social practices

I show awareness of the fact that other people might
think, behave and feel differently.
I actively explore the reasons behind different practices
and reactions.

3. Knowledge about world views and belief system

I recognise differences in world views and belief systems
when interacting.
I show understanding of the fact that world views and
beliefs people hold are not static.
I recognise that world views and belief systems influence
but do not determine a person’s or a group’s identity.

Adapted from: Lázár (ed.) (2008: 4 and 5)

4. Make up a dialogue between and American and Spanish teenager. The

American teen has troubles with his parents because he wants to get his
driver’s license but they do not allow him because of his bad behaviour at
high school.
Give him your opinion and a piece of advice. Use between 60 and 80 words.
Please, use as these words if possible.

Decide – Enjoy – Dislike – Offer – Suggest – 2 slang expressions –

3 phrasal verbs

75
 4.8. Materials
The material needed by teachers and students are: handouts/worksheet, reading
texts, computers, Internet connection, video, blog, self-assessment, learner’s diary,
carton cake, candles, boyhood film and slangs cards.

4.9. Attention to diversity

 Reinforcement activities
In listening activities, those students who need help, may be provided with
transcriptions the second time they listen to the dialogues. Nevertheless, students may
also do the following activities.
1. Look at the underlined verbs in these sentences. Which sentences are
followed by a verb ending in ‘-ing’? Which sentences are followed by an
infinitive?
a. I enjoy eating everything.
b. Mr Perham agreed to teach him.
c. I’ve practised handling emergencies.
d. What would you like to do after the lesson?
e. I decided to go the beach last weekend.

Verb + ‘ing’ Verb + infinitive

2. Complete each sentence with a verb from the box. Use the correct tense.

Begin – Dislike – Offer – Suggest – Want - Fancy

a. What do you __________ to do tomorrow?

b. The baby always ___________to cry when he is hungry.
c. I __________ being away from my family.
d. The kids __________ to do the dishes yesterday.
e. Do you ________ coming with us?
f. I ___________ going to the cinema in my car.

76
  Extension activity

1. Draw a comic telling a story about the adventures of an Australian and a

Spanish teenagers who are friends.

4.9.1. Possible problems

Even though it is extremely difficult to foresee the possible problems that may
emerge when implementing this didactic unit, the following issues are worth being
considered:
1. Shy students might need extra support for the pecha-kucha and the candles
ceremony.
2. The Internet connection needs to work for all the sessions.
3. Activities in session four might need more guidance.
4. The candle ceremony in session six may be prepared in an open place, where the
danger of fire can be reduced.

77
 4.10. Assessment

4.10.1. Evaluation criteria

The evaluation criteria of this didactic unit are:

1. Development of cooperative strategies to reach a common goal using the internet
to obtain the required information about other countries and traditions.
2. Oral interaction with other classmates, sharing their opinion using the expressions
and structures which appear throughout the unit.
3. Extracting general and specific information from a written text and different scenes
of a film.
4. Familiarity with basic verbs followed by ‘-ing’ or ‘to’ infinitive.
5. Familiarity with the vocabulary about the coming of age.
6. Willingness, tolerance and openness in the process of knowing other cultures and
mediate between the conflicting interpretations that may appear in the process.

4.10.2. Assessment tools

The tools, used to assess the didactic unit, are:

 Learner’s portfolio (with all the activities done in class) : 30%

 Learners’ self-assessment: 10%
 Pecha-kucha: 10%
 Oral participation while doing activities in session 4 (Boyhood film): 15%
 Contribution to the blog (10%) plus 0`05 extra point to students who express
their (sound) opinions in the blog.
 Contribution to the candles ceremony: 10%

78
 5. References

Allport (1954) The nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Arnett, J. J. (2002) The psychology of globalization (pp. 774 – 783). American

Psychologist, 57.

Berger, P., and Luckmann, T. (1966) Places in the primary school: Knowledge and
understanding of places at key stages 1 and 2. London: Framer.

Barret, M. (n.d.) Intercultural Competence. Available at

http://www.theewc.org/content/resources/intercultural.competence/ [Retrieved: 28th
August 2015]

Brake, T., Walker, D. M. and Walker, T. (1995) Doing business internationally: The guide
to cross-cultural success. New York: MacGraw-Hill.

Buttjes, D. (1988) Kontakt und Distanz: Fremdkulturelles oder interkulturelles Lernen

in Englishunterricht. In AUPELF, Culture and Language Learning. Triangle 7. Paris:
Didier.

Byram, M. et al. (eds.) (1994). Teaching – and - Learning Language – and – Culture.
Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD.

Byram, M (1997) Teaching and Assessing Intercultural Communicative Competence.

Clevedon: Multilingual Matters LTD.

Byram, M., Gribkova, B., Starkey, H. (2002) Developing the Intercultural Dimension in
Language Teaching: A practical introduction for teachers. Strasbourg: Council of
Europe.

Consejería de Educación (2007) Decreto 231/207, de 31 de Julio, por el que se

establece la ordenación y las enseñanzas correspondientes a la Educación Secundaria
Obligatoria en Andalucía.

Corbett, J. (2003) An Intercultural Approach to English Language Teaching. Clevedon:

Multilingual Matters.

Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference. Strasbourg:

Council of Europe.
Council of Europe (2006) My Languages Portfolio. European Language Portfolio –
Junior version: Revised edition. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Available in
http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/elp/ELP-REG/Default_EN.asp [Retrived 3rd October
2015]

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Council of Europe (2007) From Linguistic Diversity to Plurilingual Education: Guide for
the Development of Language Education Policies in Europe. Strasbourg: Council of
Europe.

Crowther, J et al. (eds) (1999) Oxford guide to British and American culture: for learners
of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

DES (1990) Modern Foreign Languages for Ages 11 – 16: Proposals for the Secretary of
State for Education and Science and the Secretary of State for Wales.London: HMSO.

Fantini, A.E. (1997) Developing Intercultural Competence: A Process Approach

Framework. In Alvino, E. F. (ed.) New Ways in Teaching Culture (pp. 40-44). Illinois:
TESOL.

Glaser, E., Guilherme, M., Méndez García, MC., and Mughan, T. (2007) Intercultural
Competence for Profesional Mobillity. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Harmer, J. (2001) The Practice of English Language Teaching. [3rd ed.] London:
Longman.

Huber, J., and Reynolds, C. (eds.) (2014) Developing Intercultural Competence through
Education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

IFC Films (Production) (2014) Boyhood [DVD]

Jensen, L. A. (2003) Coming of Age in a Multicultural World: Globalization and

Adolescent Cultural Identity Formation (pp. 189 – 195). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
Inc..

Karwacha-Vögel,K. (2012) Towards indicators for intercultural understanding. In

Hubert, J (ed.) Intercultural Competence for All: Preparation for Living in a
Heterogeneous World (pp. 51-60). Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.

Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and

development. Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Kramsch, C. (1993) Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lado, R. (ed.) 1958 Linguistics across Cultures. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Lazar, I. (ed.) (2008) Recognising Intercultural Competence: What Shows that I Am

Interculturally Competent? Strasbourg: Council of Europe.

Littlewood, W. (1981) Communicative Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

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Macmillan Engllish Dictionary (2007) [2nded.]

Milton, J.B. (1997) How not to Be a Fluent Fool: Understanding the Cultural Dimensions
of Language. In Alvino, E.F. (ed.) New Ways in Teaching Culture (pp. 22-27). Illinois:
TESOL.

Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (2006a) Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de

Educación.

Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (2006b) Organic Law of Education 2/2006 of May 3rd.
Available in http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/upload/Spain/Spain_LOE_eng.pdf
rd
[Retrieved 3 October 2015]

Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (2007) Real Decreto 1631/2006, de 29 de

diciembre, por el que se establece las enseñanzas mínimas correspondientes a la
Educación Secundaria Obligatoria.

Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (2013) Ley Orgánica 8/2013, de 9 de diciembre, para

la mejora de la calidad educativa.

Moran, P.R. (2001) Teaching Culture. Perspectives in Practice. Ontario: Heinle & Heinle.

Neuer, G. (2012) The dimensions of intercultural education. In Hubert, J (ed.)

Intercultural Competence for All: Preparation for Living in a Heterogeneous World (pp.
11-50). Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.

Santrock, J. W. (2003) Psicología del desarrollo en la adolescencia. [3rd ed.] Madrid:

McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Seelye, H.N (1997) Cultural Goals for Achieving Intercultural Communicative

Competence. In Alvino, E. F. (ed.) New Ways in Teaching Culture (pp. 22-27). Illinois:
TESOL.

Seelye, H. N. (1994) Teaching Culture: Strategies for Intercultural Communication.

Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company.

Stern, H.H. (1992) Issues and Options in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

Szende, T. (2014) Second Culture Teaching and Learning. An Introduction. Bern: Peter
Lang.

UNESCO (2013) Intercultural Competences: Conceptual and Operational Framework.

Paris: UNESCO.

van Ek, J. A. (1986) Objectives for Foreign Language Learning, Vol.1: Scope. Strasbourg:
Council of Europe.

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Vivian, J. and Brown, R. (1995) Prejudice and intergroup conflict. In M. Argyle and A.M.
Coleman (eds.) Social Psychology (pp. 57-77). London: Logman.

Weaver, G. R. (1993) Understanding and coping with cross- cultural stress. In Peige, R.
M. (ed.) Education for the intercultural experience (pp. 137-168). Yarmouth, ME:
Intercultural Press.

Wierzbicka, A. (1997) The double life of a bilingual: a cross-cultural perspective. In M.h.

Bond (ed.) Working at the Interface of Culture. Eighteen Lives in Social Science (pp.
113-125). London: Routledge.

Internet resources:

Pages recommended to students in session 2:

http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/teenagers_and_free_time.html [Retrieved: 5th

September 2015]

http://rcg.org/youth/articles/0502-a.html[Retrieved: 5th September 2015]

http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/weekends.htm[Retrieved:
5th September 2015]

http://referaty.atlas.sk/cudzie-jazyky/anglictina/42299/?print=1[Retrieved: 5th September

2015]

http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/1947/How-Americans-Spend-Their-Time-HOW-DO-
AMERICANS-LIKE-SPEND-THEIR-LEISURE-TIME.html[Retrieved: 5th September 2015]

http://www.bls.gov/TUS/CHARTS/LEISURE.HTM[Retrieved: 5th September 2015]

Internet resource in session 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYCr9cl-YQY [Retrieved:

5th September 2015]

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 6. Appendices
6.1. Appendix 1
General Objectives of Stage

Real Decreto 1631/2006, de 29 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las enseñanzas

mínimas correspondientes a la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria.

La Educación secundaria obligatoria contribuirá a desarrollar en los alumnos y las

alumnas las capacidades que les permitan:

a) Asumir responsablemente sus deberes, conocer y ejercer sus derechos en el respeto

a los demás, practicar la tolerancia, la cooperación y la solidaridad entre las personas y
grupos, ejercitarse en el diálogo afianzando los derechos humanos como valores
comunes de una sociedad plural y prepararse para el ejercicio de la ciudadanía
democrática.

b) Desarrollar y consolidar hábitos de disciplina, estudio y trabajo individual y en

equipo como condición necesaria para una realización eficaz de las tareas del
aprendizaje y como medio de desarrollo personal.

c) Valorar y respetar la diferencia de sexos y la igualdad de derechos y oportunidades

entre ellos. Rechazar los estereotipos que supongan discriminación entre hombres y
mujeres.

d) Fortalecer sus capacidades afectivas en todos los ámbitos de la personalidad y en

sus relaciones con los demás, así como rechazar la violencia, los prejuicios de cualquier
tipo, los comportamientos sexistas y resolver pacíficamente los conflictos.

e) Desarrollar destrezas básicas en la utilización de las fuentes de información para,

con sentido crítico, adquirir nuevos conocimientos. Adquirir una preparación básica en
el campo de las tecnologías, especialmente las de la información y la comunicación.

f) Concebir el conocimiento científico como un saber integrado que se estructura en

distintas disciplinas, así como conocer y aplicar los métodos para identificar los
problemas en los diversos campos del conocimiento y de la experiencia.

g) Desarrollar el espíritu emprendedor y la confianza en sí mismo, la participación, el

sentido crítico, la iniciativa personal y la capacidad para aprender a aprender,
planificar, tomar decisiones y asumir responsabilidades.

h) Comprender y expresar con corrección, oralmente y por escrito, en la lengua

castellana y, si la hubiere, en la lengua cooficial de la Comunidad Autónoma, textos y
mensajes complejos, e iniciarse en el conocimiento, la lectura y el estudio de la
literatura.

i) Comprender y expresarse en una o más lenguas extranjeras de manera apropiada.

83
j) Conocer, valorar y respetar los aspectos básicos de la cultura y la historia propias y
de los demás, así como el patrimonio artístico y cultural.

k) Conocer y aceptar el funcionamiento del propio cuerpo y el de los otros, respetar las
diferencias, afianzar los hábitos de cuidado y salud corporales e incorporar la
educación física y la práctica del deporte para favorecer el desarrollo personal y social.
Conocer y valorar la dimensión humana de la sexualidad en toda su diversidad. Valorar
críticamente los hábitos sociales relacionados con la salud, el consumo, el cuidado de
los seres vivos y el medio ambiente, contribuyendo a su conservación y mejora.

l) Apreciar la creación artística y comprender el lenguaje de las distintas

manifestaciones artísticas, utilizando diversos medios de expresión y representación.

[Royal Decree 1631/2006 of December 29th]

Statutory or Compulsory Secondary Education must contribute to the development of

a series of capacities to allow students:

a) To assume their duties responsibly, get to know and exercise their rights
respecting the others; to practise tolerance, cooperation and solidarity and to utilise
the dialogue in order to consolidate human rights as the key principles of a pluralistic
and democratic society.

b) To get into the habit of working individually and cooperatively, of showing effort
and becoming responsible in one’s studies and to recognize these as necessary
variables to succeed in school tasks and as a means of personal growth.

c) To assess and respect both the differences between sexes and the principle of equal
rights and opportunities between them. To reject any kind of stereotyping that might
imply man-woman discrimination.

d) To develop affective capacities within all possible spheres of their personality and
social relationships, together with attitudes completely opposed to any kind of
violence, prejudices and sexist stereotypes, and favouring a peaceful resolution of
conflicts.

e) To develop a number of basic skills when using different sources of information in

order to, with critical awareness, acquire new knowledge. And also, to build up basic
skills in order to use the new technologies of information and communication.

f) To envisage scientific knowledge as an integrative one, structured in distinct

disciplines. Then to make use of scientific methods to identify problems within the
different fields of knowledge and experience.

84
g) To develop attitudes of self-confidence, critical awareness, personal initiative,
cooperation, curiosity, and interest; to foster learning to learn strategies and also
skills to plan, take decisions and assume responsibilities.

h) To be able to understand and accurately produce complex oral and written texts
or messages in Castilian Spanish –the same would apply in the case of another
official language in the particular Autonomous Region-; and to get initiated in the
knowledge, reading and study of literature.

i) To acquire a basic communicative competence in, at least, one foreign language in

order to understand and produce FL messages.

j) To get familiarized with and appraise the elements and basic traits of both their
natural, social, historical, cultural and artistic heritage and also that of others.

k) To appreciate the true value of hygiene and health, accept one’s own body and that
of the others, respect differences and make use of physical education and sport as
valuable tools to favour individual and social development. To meet and value the
human dimension of sexuality, considering its heterogeneity. To assess critically those
social habits related to health, consumption, and the care of living beings and, in this
latter case, developing an attitude for its preservation and improvement.

l) To value artistic creation and also to understand and use the different modes of
expression and representation of the distinct arts.

85
 General Objective of Stage
DECRETO 231/2007, DE 31 DE JULIO, POR EL QUE SE ESTABLECE LA ORDENACIÓN Y LAS
ENSEÑANZAS CORRESPONDIENTES A LA EDUCACIÓN SECUNDARIA OBLIGATORIA EN
ANDALUCÍA.

La educación secundaria obligatoria contribuirá a desarrollar en el alumnado los

saberes, las capacidades, los hábitos, las actitudes y los valores que les permitan
alcanzar, además de los objetivos enumerados en el artículo 23 de la Ley Orgánica
2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación, los siguientes:
a) Adquirir habilidades que les permitan desenvolverse con autonomía en el ámbito
familiar y doméstico, así como en los grupos sociales con los que se relacionan,
participando con actitudes solidarias, tolerantes y libres de prejuicios.
b) Interpretar y producir con propiedad, autonomía y creatividad mensajes que utilicen
códigos artísticos, científicos y técnicos.
c) Comprender los principios y valores que rigen el funcionamiento de las sociedades
democráticas contemporáneas, especialmente los relativos a los derechos y deberes
de la ciudadanía.
d) Comprender los principios básicos que rigen el funcionamiento del medio físico y
natural, valorar las repercusiones que sobre él tienen las actividades humanas y
contribuir activamente a la defensa, conservación y mejora del mismo como elemento
determinante de la calidad de vida.
e) Conocer y apreciar las peculiaridades de la modalidad lingüística andaluza en todas
sus variedades.
f) Conocer y respetar la realidad cultural de Andalucía, partiendo del conocimiento y
de la comprensión de Andalucía como comunidad de encuentro de culturas.

[Decree 231/2007 of July 31st (Andalusia)]

Together with the objectives listed above, Statutory Secondary Education in Andalusia
must make it possible for students to develop the following knowledge, capacities,
habits, attitudes and values:

a) To develop skills in order to get into touch with other people and take part in
group activities showing tolerant and supportive attitudes, rid of inhibitions and
prejudices.

b) To interpret and produce adequate, autonomous and creatively messages

involving the use of artistic, scientific or technical codes.

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c) To analyse the mechanisms and values which govern contemporary democratic
societies, especially those ones related to the rights and duties of citizens.

d) To understand the basic principles which determine the natural world, assess the
repercussions that human activities do have upon it and contribute jointly to the
development, defence, preservation and improvement of our socio-natural
environment.

e) To know and assess the different peculiarities of Andalusian talk in all its possible
varieties.

f) To get familiarized with and respect the diversity of Andalusian cultural heritage,
understanding our homeland as a place where other cultures meet.

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 6.2. Appendix 2
Foreign language Objectives
Real Decreto 1631/2006, de 29 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las enseñanzas
mínimas correspondientes a la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria
La enseñanza de la Lengua extranjera en esta etapa tendrá como finalidad el desarrollo
de las siguientes capacidades:
1. Escuchar y comprender información general y específica de textos orales en
situaciones comunicativas variadas, adoptando una actitud respetuosa y de
cooperación.
2. Expresarse e interactuar oralmente en situaciones habituales de comunicación de
forma comprensible, adecuada y con cierto nivel de autonomía.
3. Leer y comprender textos diversos de un nivel adecuado a las capacidades e
intereses del alumnado con el fin de extraer información general y específica, y utilizar
la lectura como fuente de placer y de enriquecimiento personal.
4. Escribir textos sencillos con finalidades diversas sobre distintos temas utilizando
recursos adecuados de cohesión y coherencia.
5. Utilizar con corrección los componentes fonéticos, léxicos, estructurales y
funcionales básicos de la lengua extranjera en contextos reales de comunicación.
6. Desarrollar la autonomía en el aprendizaje, reflexionar sobre los propios procesos
de aprendizaje, y transferir a la lengua extranjera conocimientos y estrategias de
comunicación adquiridas en otras lenguas.
7. Utilizar estrategias de aprendizaje y todos los medios a su alcance, incluidas las
tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, para obtener, seleccionar y presentar
información oralmente y por escrito.
8. Apreciar la lengua extranjera como instrumento de acceso a la información y como
herramienta de aprendizaje de contenidos diversos.
9. Valorar la lengua extranjera y las lenguas en general, como medio de comunicación
y entendimiento entre personas de procedencias, lenguas y culturas diversas evitando
cualquier tipo de discriminación y de estereotipos lingüísticos y culturales.
10. Manifestar una actitud receptiva y de auto-confianza en la capacidad de
aprendizaje y uso de la lengua extranjera.

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 FOREIGN LANGUAGES.GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF THE ENGLISH SUBJECT.
Statutory Secondary Education
[Royal Decree 1631/2006, Decree 231/07 & Order of August 10TH, 2007]

Foreign Language Learning at this stage will have as its goal the development of the
capacities below:

1. To comprehend global and specific information from oral texts intended for diverse
communicative situations, adopting an attitude of respect and cooperation.

2. To be able to produce oral texts and interact in the course of familiar

communicative events not only comprehensibly and adequately but also with certain
degree of autonomy.

3. To comprehend written texts previously adapted to students’ proficiency level,

interests and needs with the idea of scanning and skimming through them,
appreciating their value as sources of information, enjoyment and pleasure, and also
personal growth.

4. To produce brief and simple written texts aimed at different purposes and built
upon distinct topics, making use of the appropriate cohesive and coherent devices.

5. To make an accurate use of the basic phonetic, lexical, structural and functional
components of the FL in real communicative contexts.

6. To develop learning-to-learn strategies; to be able to apply L1 knowledge and

communicative skills when trying to learn a new language. To reflect upon one’s own
learning processes.

7. To utilise learning strategies and every single means at their disposal, including the
new technologies of information and communication, in order to obtain, select and
offer oral and written information.

8. To appreciate the value of Ls as both learning tools and as sources of distinct types
of information.

9. To assess FLs –and languages, in general- as an instrument to gain access to other

cultures, people, and countries eliminating any sort of cultural and linguistic
stereotype.

10. To show a receptive approach towards L2 learning and to develop a self-confident

attitude in one’s own capacity to learn and use a foreign language.

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