Introducing Cultural Minorities in the EFL Classroom through Folklore

Abstract

[eng] This thesis attempts to combine the learning of English linguistic skills (Use of English, Speaking, Writing, Listening and Reading) with the introduction of folklore from different cultural minorities in English-speaking countries, so as to prompt the development of the cultural awareness and expression competences in 4th of ESO students. Cultural traditions, beliefs and customs will be addressed in order to develop the intercultural communicative competence in the EFL classroom. The use of ICT tools in combination with folk tales and songs shall be relevant to foster students’ motivation and to improve their digital competence at the same time. Departing from the implementation of reading, writing and listening activities with the stories A Tale of Two Dragons, Tír na nÓg and the famous character Black Agnes, the final project will serve as a pretext to develop a major speaking task. Although all the activities will place learners at the centre of their learning process as they will work autonomously, teachers shall play a vital role in guiding students when dealing with these materials and performing the tasks. As for the evaluation, in order to foster the development of the learningto-learn competence, formative assessment will take part on these activities, even though exams will also play an important role in the assessment process. By suggesting the use of authentic materials as complementary materials, this proposal seeks to justify the need of real materials from cultural minorities to celebrate and place value on the Inner Circle multicultural context. The implementation of this proposal would lead to the development of some of the key competences (linguistic, socio-civic, digital, cultural, learning-to-learn, entrepreneurship) established in the Spanish education system. Therefore, this proposal should be focused on the development of students’ communicative competence so that they can be tolerant, respectful and competent communicative speakers in a multicultural context.