Developing intercultural communicative competence: 8 hours
Targeting: higher level students of English
Maximum number of students: 15
Expected Outcomes: Stereotypes and generalizations portrayed in a particular media form.
First block lesson:
Introduction and then a survey / questionnaire concerning students' views on a particular culture in
order to analyse their preconceptions about these cultures (feedback which can be used for the final
measurement).
Slides of different social contexts and students write down how they interpreted the slide. Have
students compare their notes.
Meaningful result: Students become aware of their preconceptions.
Second block lesson:
Show them prepared pieces of media (MTV videos) representing different cultures and have students
(in groups) discuss what was seen in terms of stereotypes using their knowledge from the previous
lesson to come to a conclusion. Students present and compare their different views of the videos (if
all the students agree with each other or not on their views).
Give students the essay title and have them write a skeleton outline for homework.
Meaningful result: Making students aware of the fact that MTV videos manipulate stereotypes of
people / cultures that we simply accept.
Third block hour:
Students take notes on a brief lecture on the assignment. One teacher presents the Western
representation of life on MTV (pop culture) and the other teacher explores other representations
(Eastern cultures, etc.).
Individual work: writing assignment guided and monitored by the professor(s). The class is divided in
2.
Assignment: Essay: How does MTV influence the way you see people and why?
Meaningful result: have students come up with their own interpretation of the world they live in and
how stereotypes affect their daily lives.
Fourth block hour:
Divide the class into groups and have students discuss and compare their results / conclusions and
also elaborate on how they arrived at the said conclusions.
The students receive a questionnaire asking them about the execution of the project and of their
opinions (relevance of materials, if they found the project interesting / relevant, etc.).
How to measure the outcomes: a questionnaire similar to the one given at the beginning of the
course to see if their preconceptions have changed.