EFFECTIVE TYPES OF ACTIVITIES FOR DEVELOPING CULTURAL AWARENESS IN LEARNERS IN ELT CLASSROOM

Анотація

The paper deals with teaching foreign languges and reveals that it does not include only linguistic competence, performance or verbal communication but intercultural awareness and skills as well, awareness of how culture and identity are constructed socially. Moreover, the outcomes behind learning the foreign language are not only the matter of acquiring this language but also helps the learners acquire knowledge, skills, culture and values that can be used in their lives beyond the classroom. The purpose of the article is to highlight on how English language teaching (ELT) assist students to transfer awareness, culture and values outside an English lesson to have an impact on ways of thinking and consequently the view of life, regarding that the language teaching system should inspire learners to explore, think and understand the world around them through learning the foreign language. Research also calls for significant attention to intercultural communication in English language teaching and it emphasizes the increasingly important role of activities in ELT in order to develop learners’ communicative awareness and intercultural competence. Culture study has to be completely integrated into the English classroom. The opportunities should be created for a teacher and learners to examine and reflect on the English culture and of their own country. Incorporating the strategies and activities discussed in the article is a great beginning to help the learners become more aware culturally. The outlined activities are by no means an exhaustive list. They are simply suggestions that the teachers can adapt and expand to raise learners’ awareness and undertanding of the English culture and to help students become intercultural competent. Teachers of English may use these examples and similar activities to make explicit cultural features assocated with English. The authors can safely recommend that while teaching linguistic skills, the teachers of English should integrate a variety of cultural elements in the English classroom.