Contemporary British. language & culture. Part 1

1.

Contemporary British
language & culture
Part 1

2.

Your cultural world
Spend five minutes thinking about the topics below.
A film that made a big impression on you
The music that means the most you
The last great book you read
The last exhibition you went to
Do you watch or do any sport?
If you had to choose: plays or musicals?
Which languages do you feel comfortable in?
A country or place you feel real affection for
Which cultural icons from your country do you most / least like. Why?
Now work with another student and explain as much as you can
about your own cultural world.

3.

Culture and the classroom
Discuss these questions in groups.
• What does ‘culture’ mean to you?
• And what does ‘British culture’ mean to you?
• Do you think language and culture are linked? If
so, how?
• Do you think teaching English as a foreign
language automatically involves teaching ‘British’
culture?
• Do you think your students expect to learn about
British culture while studying English?
• Do you focus on culture in your classroom?
When? In what way?

4.

So . . . what IS British culture?
• How much do you know about the things below?
• How do you think each might be connected to British culture?
God Save the Queen
curry
the Costa del Sol in Spain
hip-hop
bowler hats
Islam
cricket
car boot sales
Easter
fish and chips
lager
ballet
football
Shakespeare
punk
Harrods
St. George's Day
Jamaica
Listen to three people discuss their own feelings about British
culture. Which of the things above do they mention – and what
they say about them?

5.

Culture as product

6.

Culture as process

7.

Some key points about culture
Culture is not static. It’s changing all the time.
• Culture is all-embracing.
• Unified national cultures are a myth.
• As English is the global lingua franca, this is
even more complicated.

8.

Some key points about Britain
There’s more to the British Isles than England
England is home to 50 million people.
The other three countries have 9 million!
Only 7% go to public school!
57% claim to be working class!
Britain is built on migration: Romans, Saxons,
Vikings, the French and so on!
• Polish, Punjabi, Urdu and Bengali are most
spoken foreign languages.
• 4% of the population is Muslim
• 21% have no stated religious affiliation
• Over 150,000 Brits emigrate each year

9.

Classroom implications
• The days of facts and figures about the UK –
the British tourist board approach – are over.
• Teaching students about British culture needs
to cover change, diversity, debates and
disputes, etc.
• Culture in the classroom has to be languagefocused and help students talk about culture
in general more competently
• It has to be a two-way process.
• It has to allow space for the personal.