This article aims to identify the features of 111 award-winning elementary school international culture curriculums in terms of content and materials, instructional objectives, and assessments in Taiwan. English instructional coaches evaluated the curriculums and these curriculums were given awards for their practicality, varieties of activities, distinguishing features, sequencing, originality, and completeness.

Teaching English to fifth and sixth graders in Taiwan elementary schools became compulsory starting in the fall semester of 2001 (Ministry of Education, 2001). In the fall of 2005, Taiwan began English education in the third grade (Ministry of Education, 2005). Under the Ministry of Education’s guidelines, the committee of school curriculum development and teachers in each school design a comprehensive school curriculum plan for each learning area (e.g., Mandarin Chinese, English, dialects, social science, science, math, technology) based on school conditions, textbooks, features of the community, and students’ needs. The school curriculum plan is submitted to the local education administrative authority to be examined and documented before the beginning of the school year.

Language learning and culture are inevitably linked and students are encouraged to compare and contrast languages and cultures (Buttjes, 1990; Cakir, 2006). The Education Bureau of New Taipei City Government added two 40-minute international culture classes in the 2010 academic year and aims to cultivate multilingual citizens. Remedial education, short passage articles, reader’s theater, songs and chants, radio programs, and picture books are recommended to be covered in international culture classes (Education Bureau of New Taipei City Government, 2010). The “two-peak phenomenon” on elementary school English education has been a burning issue in Taiwan (Lu, 2006). In a class in any elementary school, about one third of students never learned English before, but another third of students can already read Harry Potter in English. English remedial education seems to be the solution to this issue. TheEducation Bureau of New Taipei City Government suggested that remedial education can be integrated into international culture curriculums; however, such recommendation did not meet the goal of international culture classes to “cultivate multilingual citizens.”

Learning a culture and learning a language are inherently related. In Taiwan, elementary school students often call their English teachers “Teacher [last name]” because of the influence of Chinese language and culture. However, the culturally accepted way to call an elementary school teacher is “Mr./Ms. [last name]” in the Western culture. While “being multilingual” is defined as having language proficiency and cultural awareness in this article, “being fauxlingual” refers to knowing a language but not knowing its culture. Students understand the word “teacher” but do not understand the culture. They can use the term “culturally” inaccurately. This article aims to answer one question, “Do these international culture curriculums reach the goal of cultivating multilingual or fauxlingual citizens?”

CONTENT AND MATERIALS

A total of 1,242 curriculums were designed by English teachers. A curriculum committee in each school, composed of English teachers, selected and recommended curriculums. Of the 350 recommended curriculums, only 111 were evaluated as “excellent” by English instructional coaches. The gap between the total 350 recommended plans and the 111 excellent plans demonstrated that English instructional coaches were not satisfied with the overall curriculums. Whereas textbooks are the primary teaching material in English instruction at the elementary school level, picture books are widely used as supplementary materials (Chien, 2006). The most popular materials in international culture curriculums were Western picture books (e.g., A Very Hungry Caterpillar), followed by songs (e.g., “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”), chants, and holidays (e.g., Christmas, Halloween, Chinese New Year).

There was a lack of school-based curriculums in these curriculums. Only 12 international culture curriculums integrated school-based curriculums. The topics on school-based curriculums included energy saving, historic site, sustainable campus, and school’s farm. How should school-based curriculums be integrated into international cultural curriculums?

School-based curriculums must reflect local needs and characteristics (Bolstad, 2004). Elementary schools in New Taipei City have their own unique local culture, such as pottery in Yingge area. Elementary schools in these areas can integrate such unique culture into their curriculums. Such integration can help arouse learners’ cultural awareness of target language (English) culture and local culture; therefore, students can be cultivated to achieve the goal of international culture curriculum as “multilingual citizens.”

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES

The National Standards in the Foreign Language Education Project (1999) emphasize “developing insight into the nature of language and culture” and “gaining knowledge and understanding other cultures” as two important standards for foreign language teaching in the 21^st century. The goal of the international culture classes is to cultivate multilingual citizens; however, some curriculums were fauxlingual. Some curriculums looked like there was an emphasis on cultural awareness; however, there were no big differences in instructional objectives between regular English classes and some of the international culture classes. In some curriculums, English teachers still focus only on four language skills rather than on cultural awareness.

By embracing the cultural competence or awareness, students will develop knowledge of the target culture and master some skills in culturally appropriate communication and behavior for the target culture. Comparing and contrasting the differences and similarities between foreign and domestic culture is one of the cultural competencies. Therefore, teachers should facilitate discussion on foreign and domestic culture and customs.

ASSESSMENTS

Evaluation and teaching are interrelated. Evaluation is a part of teaching, as are the materials, syllabus, and approach used in the classroom. Evaluation of students’ cultural learning provides students with important feedback and keeps teachers accountable in their work. Cultural learning assessment has been neglected in second language teaching education, and this is something that must be addressed so that teachers can help students to truly understand and profit from this cultural aspect of their foreign language classes (Chien, 2006).

English teachers are required to include assessment tools in the curriculums. Artwork, reader’s theater, singing, chanting, and role playing were used to evaluate students’ English abilities and cultural awareness in these 111 award-winning international culture curriculums. Garcia and Pearson (1994) included the following in the alternative assessments: performance assessment, authentic assessment, portfolio assessment, informal assessment, situated assessment, and assessment by exhibition. However, English teachers integrate only performance assessment, informal assessment, and assessment by exhibition into their international culture curriculums. Other types of alternative assessments recommended by Garcia and Pearson (1994) should be integrated into the international culture curriculums, too.

CONCLUSION

Analysis of 111 award-winning international culture curriculums showed that these curriculums have two strengths and three weaknesses. The first strength is the use of varieties of authentic materials such as picture books or online resources and various teaching activities. Through these diverse learning and teaching materials, teachers are expected to arouse students’ cultural awareness and competencies. Second, alternative assessments such as artwork, reader’s theater, singing, chanting, or role playing were used to evaluate students’ English abilities. Having alternative assessments helps students engage in classroom activities and understand culture better than traditional written assessments do.

However, these curriculums have three weaknesses. First, teachers did not integrate local culture and students’ diverse ethnical background into their curriculums to cultivate the so-called “multilingual citizens,” which means there was a lack of school-based curriculums in these curriculums. Second, regular English classes aim to develop learners’ basic English four skills and international culture classes focus on cultivating multilingual citizens; however, there were no significant differences between instructional objectives between the regular English and international culture classes. Third, remedial education is expected to help those who fall behind the standards to keep up with their peers; therefore, remedial education seemed to be inappropriate in international culture classes because it did not meet the goal of international culture classes “to cultivate multilingual citizens.”

Four suggestions are provided to make international culture curriculums more effective.

1. Authentic and diverse materials should be used to arouse learners’ cultural awareness.
2. Alternative assessments should be given to assess learners’ cultural awareness and competencies.
3. Integration of school-based curriculums into international culture curriculums can enable learners to use English to describe their own community, culture, and schools.
4. In order to help students to be equipped with cultural competence, teachers should emphasize the comparisons and contrast between target and domestic culture in international culture classes.

Because language and culture are inseparably connected, integrating culture into Taiwan’s elementary school English education reveals educators’ awareness of the inevitability of language and culture learning and teaching in foreign language education.

REFERENCES

Bolstad, R. (2004). School-based curriculum development: Redefining the term for New Zealand schools today and tomorrow. Paper presented at the conference of the New Zealand Association of Research in Education (NZARE), Wellington.

Buttjes, D. (1990). Teaching foreign language and culture: Social impact and political significance. Language Learning Journal, 2(1), 53–57.

Cakir, I. (2006). Developing cultural awareness in foreign language teaching. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 7, 3. Retrieved on April 2, 2011, from http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde23/pdf/article_12.pdf

Chien, C. W. (2006). Integration of picture books into culture teaching in elementary school English education in Taiwan. Paper presented at the International Cultural Network, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Education Bureau of New Taipei City Government. (2010). Grade 1-9 English curriculum guidelines. New Taipei City, Taiwan: Education Department New City Government.

Garcia, G. E., & Pearson, P. D. (1994). Assessment and diversity. Review of Research in Education, 20, 337–392.

Lu, Y. N. (2006). Elementary school English phenomena. Electronic Journal of English Education, 23.

Ministry of Education. (2001). Guidelines on English teaching activity designs and assessments in elementary and junior high school. Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Education. (2005). Guidelines on English teaching activity designs and assessments in elementary and junior high school. Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Education.

National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project. (1999). Standards for foreign language learning in the 21^st century. Lawrence, KS: Allen Press.

Grace Chin-Wen Chien graduated from the University of Washington with a doctorate in education in June 2011. She works as an elementary school English teacher and instructional coach in Taiwan. Her research interests are language education, language teachers’ education, and curriculum and instruction.