the fact that everybody from Yerevan to Brasilia, Jakarta to Jerusalem, knows songs by the Black Eyed Peas or wears New York Yankees caps doesn’t mean that culture is the same everywhere. (Kimmelman 2010)
Teaching the students to understand different cultures is crucially important in the twenty-first century of globalization and growing intercultural contacts. To explore the different ways of life in other countries, EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers can use reference books like Culture Shock! – A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette series. Such guides help the teachers learn more about the nations they plan to discuss with the students, but do not provide much freedom for task design, as they are usually written in a narrative mode.
In search of a good source of cultural information that gives an opportunity to create authentic assignments, EFL teachers may turn to newspaper texts. Online versions of high-quality newspapers such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Telegraph, and The Times provide the latest overview of the world and local news, cover different writing styles, and are allowed to be used in the language classroom. Though in most countries you may freely use newspaper articles for classroom purposes, it is always good to double-check the “terms and conditions” section of each newspaper and the copyright law in the country where you teach, to make sure it is permitted to take the materials for non-commercial and educational “fair use.” |
