Teaching contexts

4.1 Adults at an ESP university context

Our research context is an ESP course at university level with future tour guides. To introduce this context, we should trace back the origin of this course of studies in our community. There was a need of tourist guides to respond to the requirements of an international tourist centre. It is important to point out that San Martín de los Andes could be considered a ―melting pot‖ where there are descendants of European immigrants known as ―NYC (nacido y criado)‖, born and raised; people coming from other parts of the country ―VYQ (venido y quedado)‖, came and stayed; and Mapuche people. In other words, intercultural communication has always been a distinctive feature of our community. Within these cultural contexts, English was considered the language to be included in the curricula so as to give future professionals the tools to communicate with foreign visitors. Consequently, we considered that the development of local identity was a must in the design of the English syllabus. The projects to be described intend to provide learners with relevant language to share aspects of our culture in order to empower their communication

102 skills and create bonds with other groups.

Some of our students have had previous experiences with the language. However, they report these instances as being mainly grammar-oriented. Thus, in most cases, it is the first time that learners feel the need to use the foreign language to share aspects of their culture with people from other countries.

Throughout their course of studies, students are confronted to varied situations in which they need to reflect upon their own culture. Teaching practices are intended to connect the foreign language to other areas in the curriculum (Content). Students are asked to retell local legends, describe historical buildings in town, talk about our ancestors and give information about regional hand- made products. Culture and language are permanently and explicitly interacting. ―...we attempt to anticipate students´ language needs (Language Dimension) i.e. we try to preview possible language problems and provide support strategies for each of the content/ skills, aimed at being developed, once needs are identified. Tasks are carefully planned, scaffolded and presented in a logical way. They are not based on grammatical complexity but on cognitive abilities.‖ (Tavella & Fernández, 2010). The aim is, as Marsh states, to build ―knowledge as construction instead of instruction.‖ (as cited in Barbero, Damascelli &Vittoz, 2009, p.104).

―Language support tasks operate at a number of language levels. They normally support the learner at the level of vocabulary, grammar, function and textual organization, and in listening, speaking, reading or writing‖ (Barbero, Damascelli &Vittoz, 2009, p.105). For instance, when we want our students to be able to retell local legends, we need to give them support tasks at text level. We provide them with sentence starters so that they can structure their oral speeches and express themselves more confidently.

103 First, students get together in groups organized as they wish and start writing their legends. The teacher corrects the drafts and then, they choose the modality for their presentation. Role- plays, short videos and puppet shows have been some of their choices. Students‘ reports reveal that they have enjoyed working together with a specific aim, learnt from the others and increased oral practice, as numerous repetitions were needed in order to produce a fluent oral speech. They have gained in language and cultural development. This activity is aimed at further developing language as well as cultural bonding. ―... interculturally competent language learners are (more) aware of the cultural conventions underlying the wor(l)ds they encounter and use‖ (Sudhoff, 2010, 32).

4.2 Young learners at a language school

As regards our other context, the objectives are to broaden young learners´ views of the world around them, to respect otherness and to promote values related to cultural diversity. English Language courses offered at Huellas Language School are built around the idea that multiple opportunities should be provided in order to guarantee successful language learning. Not everybody learns in the same way and this should also be reflected in language classes. At Huellas, language learning is placed within a wider context. Students are encouraged to develop a myriad of skills through a variety of contents. We will refer to one of the areas particularly relevant to this paper.

Children join different year- round projects connected to varied ethnic and/or minority peoples and countries. The project we will talk about has been designed to encourage intercultural awareness. These classroom actions ―enable the individual to develop an enriched, more complex personality and an enhanced capacity for further language learning

104 and greater openness to new cultural experiences‖ (CEFR, 2001, p.43).

As opposed to university students who have already been in touch with the content proposed in the L1 through other subjects in the curricula, most of our young learners (8 to 12 years old), coming from state- run schools in the province of Neuquén, have not yet been introduced to these topics in the school curricula. Most of the contents are presented for the first time.

When we talk about English-speaking countries, geographical features, traditions, festivities, typical dishes, clothing, music and society are among the topics that are tackled. Young learners are introduced to these cultures through a variety of activities: cooking, crafts, web searches, role- plays, oral presentations. Depending on the characteristics of the country to be dealt with and the interests of the group of students in particular, we choose among the activities mentioned above. As we want to make sure that all our students join in, we design classroom actions that cater for different learning styles. When students get in touch with other realities, they are generally able to respect cultural differences and value cultural similarities. We believe that cultural awareness is of utmost importance in our community. Then, it should be encouraged from an early age. ―Experiencing and understanding a foreign language in a content- based way opens doors to intercultural learning processes.‖ (Sudhoff, 2010, p.32). It is worth mentioning that in the assessments we carry out at the end of each academic year, culture projects have always been mentioned as young learners´ favourites.