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Context: This lesson is aimed at developing critical thinking and raising cultural awareness, while focusing on practicing active listening and building vocabulary. It is a well-known fact that acquiring some familiarity with the culture is vital in the second language acquisition. Thus, teachers understand the pressing need of incorporating sociocultural factors into their classrooms and often introduce certain cultural elements in class e.g. folk songs, traditions, national holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving etc.), cuisine and many others (Frank, 2013). But what about the cultures which are not associated with the second language the student is learning? I currently live in Ukraine which is a Muslim minority country, however, I spent some time teaching in the Middle East and fell in love with the Arab culture. My students here have very little knowledge of how people who practice Islam live and what their values are even though the Ukrainian Muslim community is rather large. More than 200 thousand Crimean Tatars make up the biggest ethnic group of Ukrainian Muslims (Malynovska, 2019). Historically, the first contacts between Ukraine and Muslims can be traced back to the 10th and 11th centuries, with merchants arriving from Arab lands, Iran, and Volga Bulgaria. From the 14th century, Crimea and Southern Ukraine became more widely Islamised, being ruled by the Golden Horde (Yakubovych, 2020). In this context, I decided to change the fact that my students have only a rough idea of the Islamic culture the people who follow Islam around the world (including Ukraine) by conducting a lesson with a very clear linguistic aim, but at the same time a lesson that will broaden students’ outlook exploring elements of foreign culture and intercultural phenomena and possibly generate fruitful discussions.
Lesson general aim: To improve students’ listening for gist and detail skills, speaking skills for fluency and raise students’ cultural awareness about Ramadan and the Muslim world.
Learning objectives: By the end of the lesson learners should have a better understanding of the role of the culture, people’s traditions and customs in adjusting one’s behavior in social situations. They should also have had opportunities to reflect critically on one’s own habits and views regarding diversity and respecting other cultures.
Target audience: The lesson is appropriate for teenagers (>15 y.o.) and adults of A2-B1 levels of language proficiency.
Setting: Online classroom or face-to-face setting. For an online class use the accompanying “presentation” and for an offline class print out the “handout” (see appendices). Also, if you have the students that suffer from dyslexia, make sure to print out the “presentation” instead of the hand-out as the font is bigger and there are no transparent elements. Finally, please note that the handouts are very colorful and full of visuals, which might not appeal to learners with certain learning preferences.
Materials: Copies of What is Ramadan handout for every student,TV/laptop/smart-board
Pre-tasks: - Allow for 45-60 minutes of class time
- Have a copy of the handout ready for each student
- Make sure the Internet connection is stable to play the video on YouTube or download it beforehand: https://youtu.be/NiHYmSwPLks
Tasks:
Task 1. Pre-watching. 5-7 minutes.
Students discuss the questions in pairs, followed by an open-class feedback. It might be a good idea to point out here the fact that the “Muslim world” and “the Middle East” are not the same concepts and that not all Muslim women wear a hijab or a black abaya.
Task 2. Vocabulary 1. 5 minutes.
Students do the matching task individually and check their answers in pairs, followed by an open-class feedback. Focus on form and pronunciation.
Task 3. Vocabulary 2. 7-10 minutes.
Pre-teach “Qur'an” and poin out to the students that the spelling might be different e.g. Koran or Quran. Students do the matching task individually and check in pairs, followed by an open-class feedback. Focus on form and pronunciation.
Task 4. Watching for gist. 5-7 minutes.
Students watch the video and share their ideas in pairs, followed by an open-class feedback.
Task 5. Watching for details. 10-15 minutes.
Students do the task in pairs (from memory) and watch the video again to check their answers, followed by an open-class feedback.
Task 6. Post-watching. 10 minutes.
Students discuss the questions in pairs, followed by an open-class feedback.
Task 7. Critical thinking. 10 minutes.
Students try to infer what is happening (a Muslim lady is fasting in a Muslim minority country in a non-Muslim office; her colleagues do not seem to care about the fact that the lady is fasting. They are eating and drinking in front of her). This task is best approached as an open-class activity. Students discuss the questions in pairs, followed by an open-class feedback.
Task 8. Final discussion. 4-5 minutes.
Final reflections. This can be done in pairs (open-class feedback afterwards) or as a mind-mapping activity (write “cultural awareness” on the board and ask the students for their ideas; write them down on the board).
Final comments: This lesson is perfect for the students who live in a Muslim minority country having little knowledge of the countries where a large part of the population practice Islam. Comparisons and contrasts with students’ own cultures may be added (e.g. Christmas celebrations around the world).
When I conducted this class with my students (a group of B1 adult learners) who are Ukrainians, we had a great time discussing Ramadan and Islam-related traditions. We also pointed out that we have to be much more mindful of Islam in Ukraine as the majority of Crimean Tatars are Muslims, and it is especially significant now - in times of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation. My students were really eager to learn more about Ramadan and discuss the similarities and differences between our cultures. They reflected on the fact that learning about other cultures in class helps to not only build English language skills but broaden their knowledge about the world. Our fruitful discussion resulted in a lot of insights both linguistic and intercultural.
References:
Frank, J. (2013) ‘Raising cultural awareness in the English language classroom’ English Teaching Forum, v51 n4, pp. 2-11
Malynovska, M. (2019) ‘Crimean trajectories in public politics in Ukraine: ethical policy narrative after 2014’ Ideology and Politics, N1(12), pp. 41-59
Yakubovych, M. (2020) ‘Islam in Ukraine’ Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, Volume 11, Brill, pp. 645-655
Liliia Domashovets is an ELT instructor, material writer, teacher trainer and a social media influencer from Ukraine. She is CELTA and IHCYLT certified and has a Master’s Degree in Translation Studies and Contrastive Linguistics. Her professional interests are material development and teacher training and her expertise ranges from ESL and EAP to branding and marketing.
Appendices:
Handout for face-to-face teaching
Presentation for online and face-to-face teaching | 