The project titled “Cross-Cultural Teaching Resource Pack for Public School English Teachers in Rural and Disadvantaged Areas” was developed in collaboration between Nottingham Trent University and Chongqing University, with the support of the British Council’s EMaDA awards. The project sought to explore the needs of students and English teachers in rural junior high schools to support improved classroom teaching resources that develop cross-cultural competences through English language teaching. Based on identified local needs the project developed a context-appropriate, culture theme-based digital resource pack for English teachers to use in their classrooms. The insight and materials created seek to provide resources that can be directly applied in local contexts and used within existing or new lessons thereby contributing to better quality of education in rural areas through the digital medium. The lessons selected are directly linked to the 2022 national curriculum through addressing thematic areas of: People and nature and People and society.
The outputs of the project consist of :
- A research report outlining key findings of research undertaken.
- 8 lesson plans and materials including 5 bespoke video resources and lesson plans that can directly support students develop intercultural understanding in English lessons.
Resource descriptions provided by Nottingham Trent University
People and the world thematic area
Ocean pollution: This reading text lesson is based around the theme of ‘Environmental pollution and its causes, environmental awareness and behaviour’ within the broader theme of 'People and Nature'. Students will read about the problem of plastic in the oceans and will think about creative ways to reduce and reuse plastic products.
Beach clean-up: This video text lesson is based around the theme of ‘Environmental pollution and its causes, environmental awareness and behaviour’ within the broader theme of 'People and Nature'. Students will watch a news video to find out about a community in Nigeria taking action to clean up their local beaches and will discuss other ways people can tackle pollution. (V)
Protecting Elephants: This video text lesson is based around the theme of ‘living in harmony with nature’ within the broader theme of People and Nature. Students will watch a video and listen to a successful example from Sri Lanka about effects of human activity on animal’s lives and discuss what humans can do to protect animals in their habitat. (V)
Saving Tigers: This reading text lesson is based around the theme of ‘living in harmony with nature’ within the broader theme of People and Nature. Students will read a short text about tigers in the wild and a successful example from Nepal about saving endangered animals.
Children Exploring Nature: This video text lesson is based around the theme of ‘living in harmony with nature’ within the broader theme of People and Nature. Students will watch a video about five children and their dog playing outside and exploring nature and will discuss what people can do to be close to nature. (V)
People and society thematic area
Dance around the world: This video text lesson is based around the theme of ‘foreign music and dance’ within the broader theme of 'People and Society’. Students will watch a short documentary where they can see and hear people from various countries dancing to different types of music as well as investigating dance traditions in their own locale. (Vx2)
Hip-hop museum: This reading text lesson is based around the theme of Cultural values and work of appreciation’ within the broader theme of 'People and Society'. Students will read a press release from a museum in America and discuss their own interests in terms of visiting museums and listening to hip-hop music.
Terracotta: This reading text lesson is based around the theme of Cultural values and work of appreciation’ within the broader theme of 'People and Society'. Students will read an article about terracotta objects discovered in Nigeria, China and Turkey as well as exploring other examples of sculpture in their own country and internationally.
Detailed teachers’ notes have been provided to accompany each lesson. Please scan the QR code above or click here to access to the materials. Please note you may need to register and log in to get the materials.
Project introduction at 2023 China TeachingEnglish Online Conference
Please click above to see the project introduction at 2023 China TeachingEnglish Online Conference
We hope you find these materials useful and interesting. You are free to download, adapt and use these materials in your classes. We would be really interested to receive any feedback about the project or queries to wow@ntu.ac.uk. For any question with regard to download process, please contact elt@britishcouncil.org.cn.