5 ways to center culture in your world languages curriculum
It's important to make culture the main focus when teaching a new language. As a world language teacher, you guide students toward becoming respectful and confident global citizens in our modern world. When you make culture a key part of your lessons, you give students a constant source of motivation, keeping them excited about learning for a long time.
Let's explore five effective activities to make culture the heart of your lessons instead of an afterthought.
5 Activities to Integrate Culture into Your Language Lessons
Get your students excited by picking one or two focus locations each semester. Whether it's Southern France, Beijing, or Ecuador, focusing on a specific area gives students something real to explore. Use the location to guide your choices for books, creative projects, videos, discussions, guest speakers, and virtual field trips. For example, teach weather vocabulary by having students track Chile's weather patterns and compare them to their hometown.
Encourage your students by helping them communicate with native speakers their age. Novice learners can share basic greetings and likes, while intermediate students can talk about vacation ideas and their favorite places in town.
Have students practice speaking beforehand, and don't stress about mistakes. When pets or siblings interrupt, these cute moments can actually help break cultural barriers!
Bring your classroom to famous landmarks and cities using resources like iCulture and travel videos. Ask students about what they see, what people are doing, and how they spend their free time. Encourage beginners to lead virtual trips and appreciate the value of listening to the target language with English subtitles.
Assign students or small groups to become experts on specific countries, regions, or cities. Give them photos, videos, cultural fact sheets, fake money, and Webquests to explore the culture deeply. Invite them to share insights on music, food, art, sports, and landmarks when their location appears in class stories or conversations. Challenge them to teach the class a dance, lead a virtual shopping spree, or guide an imaginary rainforest adventure.
Exploring the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals will deepen your students' cultural understanding. Have them look into which goals are most important in their focus region. They can explore how countries set good examples and what daily changes can help.
Encourage students to suggest solutions and respond to world issues in the target language. They can do this through slideshows, posters, children's books, or experiments.
Cultivate Global Citizens through Language Learning
Putting culture first in your language lessons gives your students the power to make a difference in our world. Whether you're new to teaching with culture or have been doing it for a while, these five activities will improve your lessons and inspire students to enjoy learning languages for years to come.
Connect with other language teachers in the Language Is Limitless Facebook group to find even more great ideas!
Nicole Hartung teaches middle school Spanish at Winchester Thurston School, an independent school in Pittsburgh, PA. She has worked with children of all ages since 1995 in both academic and faith-based settings. Nicole has taught Spanish levels pre-K through high school. She is an alum of the University of Pittsburgh, and studied abroad in Seville, Spain, when pesetas were still the currency. Nicole built a pen pal program for her students and students in Cuenca, Ecuador. She strives to inspire life-long learning in her students through meaningful work and global connections. Nicole has published the CI Spanish reader "Sebas en el patio."
Explore more related to this authorHow can we expect our students to change the world for the better if they do not have the chance to deeply explore places and faces that are different from their own?
Nicole Hartung, Spanish Teacher, Winchester Thurston School
