Term

Fall 2018

Capstone

Capstone Project

Degree Name

MAT

Facilitator(s)

Julianne Scullen

Content Expert

Jen Killam

Abstract

Language and culture are dynamically connected. The culture of a place refers to its people, traditions, beliefs and products such as music or food. Despite the body of evidence to support the importance of teaching about these cultural aspects, many world language teachers struggle to include cultural study alongside their language instruction. One engaging way to improve students’ linguistic and cultural competence is through read-alouds. Read-alouds are the foundation of early literacy and provide a number of benefits for young learners: they support a solid linguistic foundation for further study of the target language’s grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation; they engage students with vibrant pictures and storytelling; they encourage students to make connections to their own lives and languages; they allow students to travel to places and meet people they never dreamed possible. This capstone seeks to answer the question How can second language (L2) teachers help students use their own cultural background knowledge in order to connect language and culture through reading? This comprehensive curriculum, including a list of storybook lessons and a variety of activities and assessment strategies, provides teachers with a clear structure for teaching culture and language through read-alouds.

Project Type

Curriculum

Keywords

Curriculum, Foreign Language, Reading, Teachers/ Teaching

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Projects

Included in

Education Commons

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