Teacher cognition about film to teach intercultural competence in the English subject in lower secondary school
Master thesis
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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3138535Utgivelsesdato
2024Metadata
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- Student papers (HF-IKS) [903]
Sammendrag
This thesis has aimed at exploring teacher cognition and practices when using film to teach intercultural competence (IC) in lower secondary English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms in Norway. The research data was obtained using qualitative methods, such as semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. Six participants were interviewed and two were also observed and a post-observation interview was performed. The study addressed these three research questions: What beliefs do lower secondary English teachers have about intercultural competence? What beliefs do lower secondary English teachers have about using film to teach intercultural competence? What are lower secondary teachers reported and observed practices regarding their use of film to teach IC?Although there is a strong focus on IC in the Knowledge Promotion 2020 and the Core Curriculum, there is no specific information on how IC teaching should be conducted. Since the English subject curriculum speaks about exploring different cultures in the English-speaking world, this thesis looks at teachers’ beliefs and practices using film to teach IC in the classroom. The main finding for teachers’ cognition about teaching IC was that the participant teachers consistently included IC in their lessons, either as the main topic or in the background. Additionally, the teachers find it hard to define culture and IC as concepts because of their dynamic fashion. However, the participant teachers’ definitions are on par of what the researchers have used earlier. Another common belief among the teachers were that IC is more important than before because of social media and globalization. The participant teacher believe that they use mediation techniques to teach students how to communicate with different cultures. The participant teachers name the main challenge when teaching IC to be the potential backlash if misinterpreted or too generalizing. It was also highlighted that teacher believe it is important to discuss these topics at school because it might not be discussed at home.The participant teachers share the common belief that using film to teach IC is great if used with intent, such as including pre- and post-watching tasks and that it is relevant for the topic. They also mentioned that film is great to visualize cultures that are not well-known among the students, and that it is great to show authentic contexts and conventions in cultures. The main challenges the participant teachers bring up is the time-consuming manner of film and that students associate films with relaxation. However they also mention that the film needs to be engaging, if not students may get disruptive.When looking teachers reported and observed practices regarding their use of film to teach IC, the main finding was that teacher often use the whole film, and occasionally use film clips in teaching. The participant teachers reported that they often used feature films, as they brought entertainment and keeps students engaged. A challenge mentioned by the participating teachers was finding academic justification for using films in teaching because of the time-commitment and brief mention in the English subject curriculum. It was also found that the teachers’ criteria for choosing films were that it was age appropriate, relevant to the topic and curricular aims. The present study hopefully contributed to research within the field of teacher cognition in relation to intercultural teaching methodology. The study looked at teachers’ beliefs of teaching IC and film to teach IC and has also looked at reported and observed practices concerning film to teach IC. Because of the limited studies done on this topic the present study has presented important data on intercultural competence methodology.