eli+mata+American+Culture

[|Brainstorming]
*American Culture * holiday *Real context *interest *Students * famous people *Slangs *Teacher * Language * acquisition *inside of the classroom *authentic

[|Sentence outline]:
[|Thesis statement]:

====Because teachers do not promote the American culture in the classroom, teachers should provide authentic material, authentic language, and authentic context. ====

I.Introduction

II.The use of the authentic material means the opportunity to introduce students to a part of the culture because this material is created for social purposes a) How can the use of the authentic material can be helpful to students b) Why teacher need to use authentic material c) Advantage of the use of authentic material

III. Teacher should promote the use of the authentic language in the classroom because it helps students to produce the language in an oral way. a) Idiomatic expresions b) How important is to get the students into a real language c) Students getting familiarized with the use of real language in

IV. Students who participate on authentic activities in the classroom have the chance to experience real life situations based on real context. a)Disadvantage of design material b)Types of authetic material <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">c)Why is this important

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">V. Conclusion

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Teaching American culture in the classroom by Eli Mata
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">“Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going”(Brown). Culture is a set of particular features that provide identity to one society. Language is one of those features. Nowadays, students of a second language, in this particular case, English, students do not feel really interested in learning the language, because they only perceive it as a language full of grammatical structures, and not as a tool of communication with another part of the world. Some of the teachers in English Foreign Language (EFL) base their classes on the book, or in controlled activities. First of all, books do not include any information about the culture, and the vocabulary presented is elemental. Besides, the activities that are already fixed,and are not really helpful for the students to produce the language in a natural way. Because teachers do not promote the American culture in the classroom, teachers should provide authentic material, authentic language, and authentic context.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The use of the authentic material means the opportunity to introduce students to a part of the culture because this material is created for social purposes. According to Martinez (2002), "Authentic materials keep students informed about what is happening in the world, so they have an intrinsic educational value." (p.2). The purpose of the education is to go beyond the teaching - learning process. Education actually helps students to be aware of the social problems. English language teaching does not need to be limited to only teach the language without provide a view of the society problems, traditions or costumes. However, the use of the authentic material is not enough to help students to be aware of the culture.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**//__You have a tendency to use the term "students" in this paragraph and the next in your topic sentences. Consider using the underlined phrases as subjects which should also align directly to your thesis statement.__//** By promoting the use of the __real language in the classroom__, students feel themselves willing to produce the language in order to communicate to each other. Sadegi (2010), states that "Every language has phrases or sentences that cannot be understood literally, most of which have historical, philosophical, sociocultural, or even political origins. Even if we know the meaning of all words in a phrase and understand the grammar completely, the meaning of phrase may still be confusing" (p.1). Language is not only grammar. Nevertheless, grammar includes specific features, like sayings, idiomatic expressions, proverbs, and idioms. According to Sadegi "As important part of the culture, idioms reflect the transformation in conceptualization of the universe and the relationship between human beings and the universe" (p.1). The use of the real language in the classroom definitely will help students to get familiarized with this type of English cultural expressions, and they will feel as a part of the language. Nonetheless, the use of the real language cannot be applied by itself, activities based on real life definitely support the culture learning in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**//__You have a tendency to use the term "students" in this paragraph and the next in your topic sentences. Consider using the underlined phrases as subjects which should also align directly to your thesis statement.__//** Students who participate on __authentic activities in the classroom__ have the chance to experience real life situations based on real context. **//__Perhaps you might include the term "authentic activities" in your thesis instead of "authentic contexts" since the former is more specific.__//** Hwang (2005), stated "A comparative study of the authentic language data and textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language has revealed that the use of grammatical structures in textbooks differs considerably from the these structures in authentic English" (p.6). Also the author stated "Unfortunately, many language textbooks contain poorly motivated and illogical sequence text and dialogues that do not reflect real - world language or situation, although they usually contain multiple examples of grammar being presented" (p.6). With the use of authentic material like magazines, movies, newspapers, novels, students develop a new sense of the culture about the foreign language that they are learning. One of the disadvantages with the use of design material is that students will not be in touch with the real language context. On the contrary, the use of authentic material shows to students how to deal with real situations promoting culture learning inside of the classroom. The teachers' main objective is to form students with the ability to communicate or express themselves in a second language in complete way.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;"> American culture in the classroom has been ignored for many teach__ers, be__cause they consider that teaching culture is not important at all. **//__Review your notes as to when to use a comma.__//** However, the background of the language falls in the culture which is composed by traditions, costumes, beliefs, lifestyle and more. Students face some problems with the language if the culture is left outside on the classroom, becuase poems, stories, novels, magazines, movies, and more are directly related to the culture. This essay has relevance because culture is not being taught in the classroom, and nowadays accuracy in grammar is the most important aspect of the language. However, as it was already stated grammar is not enough to provide a clear explanation of some parts of the language. As Izadpanah (2011), states " A fluent fool is someone who speaks a foreign language well, but does not understand the social or philosophical content of the language" (p.109). **//__Ending your conclusion who have an impact, but use your own ideas instead.__//**

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">References **
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hwang,C. (2005). Effective EFL education through popular authentic materials. //Asian EFL Journal, 7//(1),pp.1-12

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Izadpanah, S. (2011). The review study: the place of cultural in English language teaching. //US-China Foreign Language,9//(2), pp. 109-116.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Martinez, A. (2002). Authentic materials: an overview. Karen’s Linguistic Issues,pp.1-6

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Sadeghi, B., Dastjerdi, H., & Ketabi, S. (2010). Patterns of persian EFL learners' comprehension of idiomatic expressions: reading strategies and cross-cultural mappings in focus. //Asian Social Science, 6//(8),pp. 81-99.

Feedback

 * Your thesis statement looks fine. Just keep the same font size (no bold) throughout your brainstorming, outline, and essay sections. Your headings are in bold, but everything else in normal text. Also, list your key words and phrases in your brainstorming section across the screen so you don't have as much white space. 1345729071
 * Check your academic writing checklist that we discussed in class on Tuesday: spacing, headings, etc. 1346357879
 * Review comma usage; headings are in bold; remove extraneous information; check spacing; stay in the third person 1346979818
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