Introduction to English Didactics
Intercultural Competence: US-American Culture
Principle 8: Representing cultures via various texts and media
3.
The song 'American Oxygen' by Rihanna represents a rich input of different cultural and
historical events of the USA, which helps to avoid a one-sided representation of the US-culture
and leads to many possible topics of the US-culture.
For instance, students should first watch and listen to the music video. From there on, students
may interpret pictures and scenes presented in the video that lead to topics like American dream,
racism, slavery, Civil Rights Movement, police violence, gun violence, capitalism, sports,
immigration and patriotism.
As a further exercise, the students may interpret the lyrics of the song.
This way we create a multidimensional approach and demonstrate a variety of cultural topics.
Furthermore, it encourages students to listen more carefully to songs and to be more aware of
the massage behind a media. Therefore, it furthers their media competence.