Arta Shaqiri 122907

“MY MODULES FOR INCORPORATION CULTURE IN ELT CLASSES”

We live in a Multicultural world so it’s beyond normal to face different religions and cultures
every single day. Although I’m Albanian I live in North Macedonia state with more than five
cultures and I am very thankful and blessed for that because I learn new things every day.
Learning or teaching a new language means that you are learning or teaching also a new
culture, and learning other cultures helps you to be prepared more in your life. I would like to
mention that even though we live in the same place Albanian culture is very different from the
other cultures. The greatest feature of our culture is that in our culture family is everything for
us. No matter how old you are you always live with your parents, in the same house for
generations, even when you create your own family. In every situation you have by your side
your family which is ready to help you for everything.
In our town there is a phrase “You are what your parents are” which means you get your first
lessons from your family but that doesn’t mean that there’s no need for learning cultures in
school, it’s absolutely the opposite. And I think that except the family teachers play a big role in
our life, because they can help students to learn the culture diversity in a number of ways
because we know that culture is not inherited but is learned. By some research “Culture is
defined as the fifth language skill” Not only in our country but everywhere in the world I also
think that there should be special subjects in order to learn about different cultures and to
teach the students how to accept and respect others no matter what culture they have.
“Hofstede (1991), Trompenaars (1993), and Czinkota and Ron Kanen (1993) all agreed that
culture is based on languages, economy, religion, policies, social institutions, class, values,
status, attitudes, manners, customs, material items, and education which subsequently
influences managerial values (Kanungo,2006).” Education depends on social conditions, cultural
and religious values. In my opinion this hypothesis shows that culture can be learned through a
lot of other things and not only in the classroom. “They also state that the term “culture” is
reserved as a whole, for nations, whereas the term “subculture” is used for the level of
organization, profession, or family. Culture is the unique characteristic of a social group; the
values and norms shared by its members set it apart from other social groups and is influenced
by conscious beliefs. One culture is not right and the other wrong. They are just different, and
those key differences are culturally rooted.” We express everything through our language, we
use the language to express our feelings, to communicate with others and other cultures. And I
agree very much with the last sentence because it’s true, cultures are just different, there are
no cultures that are right or wrong because culture is all that nature has not given to you but
you have created yourself and there is no way to be wrong.
A key factor for a successful cultural education is the ability of teachers who work in multiethnic
environments to collaborate and communicate effectively with their colleges from other
ethnicities. This means that they must be aware of their own culture and possess knowledge or
at least be curious about the culture of others. Teachers know that students learn in different
ways and the experience in the classroom confirms this every day. We all have expectations of
how students should learn and how teachers should teach. But the reality is different. People
are comfortable with their familiar ways of learning. A greater awareness of cultures of learning
can produce outcomes for everybody. Teachers should be able to adopt their methodology of
teaching to the student’s culture and their learning styles. Teachers should use different
methods of teaching culture by using textbooks, radio and projectors to play and see different
videos or lessons about the culture, pictures etc.
Teachers should be open minded related with the culture learned in the English classes, and
they should be very precious and sensitive because of the fact that different cultures will be
presented in the classroom when they create the lessons for their students. I think that the
modules must contain topics of education and everyday topics that can be used to understand
in a better way the topic. One example of a lesson plan can be “Traditional Food” here the
teacher can provide students with papers in order for the students to write some paragraphs
about foods that represent other cultures. In this lesson the teacher measures the knowledge
of students that they have about different cultures. Another lesson plan can be about” Society
and Culture”. In this lesson the teacher plays some videos for students to show different
behaviors from different cultures. The task of the students would be to evaluate their positive
and negative behaviors about the other cultures. Another lesson is “Particularities of Cultures”
here the teacher plays some materials with conversations so the students have to guess which
culture it belongs to. The purpose of this method is so that the students to be concentrate on
what they hear. As much as the teacher shows interest to make the hours more attractive with
different methods such as reading, listening and watching the students will show more interest
to learn and benefit from other cultures.
One of the best definitions of culture is “Culture is an integrated system of learned behavior
patterns that are characteristic of the members of any given society. Culture is the total way of
life of particular groups of people. It includes everything that a group of people thinks, says,
does and makes — its systems, attitudes and feelings. Culture is learned and transmitted from
generation to generation.” I absolutely agree with this definition because as mentioned before
everyone has a culture and every culture is different and unique in their own way.
Tomalin, B. (n.d.). Culture - the fifth language skill. Retrieved from
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/culture-fifth-language-skill
Mendez, A. G. (2013). What is Culture? . Merit Research Journal, 1–7. Retrieved from
https://meritresearchjournals.org/er/content/2013/July/Lebr�n.pdf
The Best Definition of Culture I've Ever Heard. (2017, November 3). Retrieved from
https://www.thecultureblend.com/the-best-definition-of-culture-ive-ever-heard/