LC Language Adventures 2024 (A5) - Flipbook - Page 16
Language Adventures: Embracing Languages and Cultures in Primary School
danger or love in some cultures, and happiness and luck in others; orange can
be sacred in one culture, associated with warmth in others but also mourning
and loss in others); animals can also be interpreted very differently across
cultures. Whether or not there is first-hand knowledge from the pupils and their
families on these topics, researching some of these aspects will reveal the
complex links between linguistic communities and their cultures and can be a
positive way to explore diversity.
Simple text-writing
Teachers present a very simple, illustrated
story. Pupils can be asked to describe a
character in the story by adding
individual words in any language
(perhaps about a character’s appearance
and/or any other features or perceived
personality traits, e.g., “good” or “evil”).
Pupils can also create a new character to
add to the story. In that case, they should
decide what he/she might look like and
what other traits he/she should have in
terms of the role they choose for him/her. An activity like this will activate their
cultural assumptions as well. For example, do pupils believe that wolves and
giants are always associated with evil across all cultures? Comic strips and
vignettes without text can also be used for pupils to apply captions or labels.
Music
Music-making can also be a good
opportunity to utilise pupils’ linguistic
repertoires and negotiating skills.
Pupils can decide what beat or what
type of music they want to use and
add very simple lyrics to the tune. This
activity could be based on an already
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