ESL Activities: 12.Victims of Culture

Theme: Culture, language and identity

Key Learning Area: English

Age Group: Primary Upper (10-12) - Secondary Lower (13-14)

Resource Type: Handouts

Stimulus Name: Victims of Culture

Outcomes
‘Victims of Culture’ play, discussion questions, quotes, handout: Celebrating in My Family

Introduction
In this lesson, students will work together to raise awareness of their cultures, explore their differences and draw upon their similarities. This will be achieved through their study of the play ‘Victims of Culture’. This play is a conversation between four students of different backgrounds who discuss their cultures and their approaches to life.

Worksheets to download
‘Victims of Culture’ play,
discussion questions, quotes,
handout: Celebrating in My Family

Resources Needed

Overhead transparencies

Overhead projector

Suggested Activities

1. Read play together as a class, allocating roles to students.
2. Home groups and Expert groups-
In groups of four: as a home group, distribute one question to each student. Students move into expert groups (all question 1 students together, question 2 students together etc) and discuss their question and come up with a common answer. Students return to home groups and share information. Students write a brief answer to each question.
3. As a class, discuss question four.

Additional Strategies

Present quotes from play on an OHT. Explain quotes in preparation for following task. Teacher should emphasise that there are both differences and similarities across cultures.
To explore the possible influence of cultural heritage on families and individuals, distribute student handout- Celebrating in My Family. Ask students to write the name of an important celebration on their sheet. In pairs, students should briefly compare their answers and circle any similarities. As a class, call on pairs to offer their similarities and draw a mind map of these on an OHT. In addition to this, the OHT could be photocopied and given to the students to assist with their homework task.

Homework Assignment: Arrange to meet 2 or 3 people from your class who all come from different countries and document the differences in your cultures. Refer to quotes for guidance.

Related Resources
ESL Activities 1: My Friends and Peers
ESL Activities 2: My Feelings About Myself
ESL Activities 3: Cultural heritage
ESL Activities 4: Different culture
ESL Activities 5: Iceberg
ESL Activities 6: Pride and Prejudice
ESL Activities 7: What is Beauty?
ESL Activities 8: Who Am I?
ESL Activities 9: Journeys From Afar
ESL Activities 10: Our Paths to Australia
ESL Activities 11: A Mixed Bag of Apples



Copyright Acknowledgement
Activities developed by teachers at Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre, NSW
Acknowledgements to Michael Harmey. ‘Victims of Culture’, 'Issues Through Drama' by Maureen Stewart (Thomas Nelson Aust, 1990)

Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre

©2005 Drift1