This activity aims to raise students’ awareness of the advantages of travelling and learning about other cultures. This activity is an adaptation of <em>Activity 45: Global Dancing</em> in <a href=”/bibliography/#/?_k=2xzfdy” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” data-mce-href=”/bibliography/#/?_k=2xzfdy”>Dudeney, Hockly & Pegrum (2013: 289-291)</a>.Before attempting this activity, you may want to point students to the <a href=”https://www.digilanguages.ie/cultural-and-intercultural-literacy-what-is-it/#/roles?_k=hoeabd” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” data-mce-href=”https://www.digilanguages.ie/cultural-and-intercultural-literacy-what-is-it/#/roles?_k=hoeabd”>Cultural and Intercultural literacy… what is it?</a> page.<br />Learning outcomesOn completion of this activity, students will be able to:<li style=”text-align: justify;” data-mce-style=”text-align: justify;”>think about travel to other cultures</li>
<br />Technology requirements<li style=”text-align: justify;” data-mce-style=”text-align: justify;”><span style=”font-weight: 400;” data-mce-style=”font-weight: 400;”>One internet-enabled teacher computer and data projector</span></li>
<br />Procedure<span style=”text-decoration: underline;” data-mce-style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Before class</span>Look for a video that features a wide variety of countries. There are many viral travel videos to choose from, but one option is to use a Where the Hell is Matt? (also know as “Dancing Matt”) video. Matt Harding has released four dancing videos, where he “travels the world badly dancing with people”, the most popular still being the 2008 video. His videos are very good for this activity because each shot of famous landmarks and site seeing spots is long enough for students to really find clues regarding the featured country.Note that country names are subtitled in this video, so you will have to cover the lower portion of the video display on your computer in order to hide them.<span style=”text-decoration: underline;” data-mce-style=”text-decoration: underline;”>In class</span><li>Ask students into groups to brainstorm as many names of countries as they can in the target language for 2 minutes. Then, get them to count how many they have; you could then decide to announce a winner. Ask them how they went about this task (alphabetical order, geographical areas…); what was the winning strategy in this case?</li><li>Tell students they are going to watch a video where their task is to try and identify as many countries as possible. If they can, they should note down the name of each country, and how they recognised it (e.g. France – the Eiffel Tower).</li><li>When students have watched the video once, get some general feedback on the countries they spotted, and how they recognised them.</li><li>Ask students what they think the advantages are of travelling and learning about other cultures. What to they think the ‘message’ of Matt’s video is?</li>
<span style=”text-decoration: underline;” data-mce-style=”text-decoration: underline;”>After class</span>For the following class, ask students toa) choose a country they would like to visit and say why, what they could do there etc.,or tob) choose a country they have visited and relate that experience to the class (where they went, what they saw and did etc.).Conduct feedback as a group.<br />Related activities