Exercises
Prejudices and stereotypes in the English Classroom.
In this second forum we are going to share our experiences with prejudices
and stereotypes in the classroom.
There are some basic aspects we have to reflect on when we are teaching
English or when we are going to do it for the first time. Read the
introductory questions of unit 5 and give your opinion about the following
aspects (please, uses these questions as a point of departure; remember
you are expected to interact, not only to answer the questions
individually). .
• Should we choose a particular accent/variety/dialect? American English? British
English? Irish English? International English?
• Is the teaching of English different from teaching other languages?
• Should we introduce cultural information about the main countries where
English is spoken? Should we be neutral about the values, prejudices,
stereotypes, general issues inherent in the subject we teach? Should we teach
learners to be critical about the cultural information we provide? Should we
compare the English-speaking countries with our own culture and country?
• Should we imitate the pronunciation of native speakers or allow students to
adopt their own accent as part of the identity they will develop as speakers of a
foreign language?
Hello everyone.
I would like to answer to all the questions since I think they are very interesting and of
course, I would love to know you opinions.
First of all, I don’t think that we should choose any specific variety, accent or dialect
when teaching English in primary or pre-school education. It will be very difficult to
establish the reasons why you should choose one variety or another, plus nowadays,
Unit 5 - Exercises
