A Cultural Understanding Class Model

for Underachievers in Elementary English

Hyeyoung JooSangdong Elementary school in Bucheon

• The Purpose of this study – to develop a class model for under-

achievers in Elementary English

• Main idea - using cultural content in teaching

English to bring out underachiever’s interest in studying English

1

2

10 students with limited conditions

3

Underachiever in Elementary English

1. The achievement viewpoint, -the student who can't successfully accomplish a learning task(Park, 1984).

2. The personal factor viewpoint, -the student has internal defects like impaired brain development or birth defects(Strauss & Lehtinen, 1974).

The national scholastic aptitude exam is a discriminatory evaluation tool. Based on the results, students who fail tomeet the basic standard are referred to as underachievers.

4

Features of Under-achievers

• A. Intellectual Properties Lack of language ability, perception abil-

ity, memory, and logical thinking skills

• B. Affective Properties Lack of attention, self confidence, learn-

ing motivation, and learning interests

5

The Reality of Underachievers

The percentage of lower basic level students (from Korean Institute for curriculum and Evaluation,

2010)

6

The Reality of Special Teaching for Underachievers

The percentage of special teaching for underachievers (from Korean Institute for curriculum and Evaluation, 2011)

7

"What makes teaching underachievers so hard?"

• Middle and High school teachers - heavy workload - a shortage of time to teach(tight curriculum)

• Elementary school teachers - lack of students' motivation (The survey of the Korean Institute for curriculum and Evaluation,

2011)

8

The present way & New approaches

The present way • Main purpose is to raise their grade in the short run.• Main activity is practicing problem solving (The result from survey of 10 English teachers who are teaching

underachievers in 2012: Dong-il Kim, 1999 )

New approaches for teaching underachievers• Variety of teaching methods• Draw out their interests and motivate them• Offer meaningful contextual situations• Activity centered(Games) teaching

9

The interview of one stu-dent

10

Teaching language vs. Teaching cultureCulture is essential to the teaching of a language.

• 'It is virtually impossible to teach a language without teaching cultural content'(Valdes, 1986)

• 'Culture is necessary because it is really an integral part of the interaction between language and

thought. Cultural patterns, customs, and ways of life are expressed in language'(Brown, 2001)

11

The Goal of Teaching Culture

• Byram(1998) - knowing about another culture and accepting another cul-

ture(Biculturalism/Interculturalism)

• Kramsch(1993) - a 'sphere of interculturality' and teaching cultural differ-

ences. - The goal of teaching culture should not be for stu-

dents to accept the standards of inner circle countries, but to recognize how particular pragmatic differences might affect their own cross-cultural encounters.

12

What kind of cultural content?

Cortazzi and Jin(1999)- three types of cultural informa-tion :

1. source culture materials2. target culture materials3. international target culture materials

13

Cultural content can drag out student’s interest?

• Richards(1995)- Students wanted to deal with cultural content and learn about the target culture. (mostly school life, food, music...)

• Teaching culture motivates students' lan-guage studying.

14

Theoretical Background

Experiential Cultural Teaching Model

15

• Greetings• Countries• Food• weather and clothing• children's games• houses and buildings• Birthday• etiquette • different gestures• breaking down the stereotypes

Cultural Theme

16

Cultural Understanding Syl-labus

17

Self cultural understanding model(Type A)

18

Topic: Children’s Game(Type A)

19

Intercultural understanding model (Type B)

20

Topic: Birthday(Type B)

21

22

23

Filed trip

24

25

30

Are you sure that they are un-derachievers?

31

The Findings from the Study

English achivement & Cultural understanding

1. English achievement

2. Cultural Understanding Increasing their willingness to have contact with other cul-tures

32

33

문화이해도 설문지 예시

Strategy for Leaning vocabulary or Memory

어휘의 암기와 읽기를 위한 학습자 나름의 전략을 구사‘smell’-‘wrote “ 냄새킁킁 스멜스멜” ‘shake’-Wrote Korean alphabet ‘ 쉐이크’Wrote the phonics in Korean alphabet Under the sentence

34

Writing

25

3. Affective domains

26

Conclusion

1. Motivating strategies are needed.

2. The specially designed English class is also essential.

3.More encouraging and interest activat-ing materials need on a nationwide level.

27

Episode

28

Discussions

1. What are some solutions for under-achievers in English?

2. What are some ideas for motivating un-derachieving students to learn English?

3. Are there any ideas for encouraging underachiever's participation in the reg-ular class?

29