English: Cultural Diversity and its Manifestations

1.GENERAL OBJECTIVES
The aim of this course is to offer an introduction to some of the main cultural aspects of the English-speaking world, taking the United Kingdom as the origin and one of the main poles of attraction among the English-speaking countries. While contributing to the development of students’ productive and receptive skills in the English language, this course will also help students systematize and increase their previous knowledge of historical, cultural and linguistic aspects related to English-speaking societies. The ultimate objective of the course is to enable students to incorporate this knowledge and cultural awareness into their future teaching practice.

2. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
As regards the development of productive and receptive skills for communication in a foreign language, students will consolidate and update their knowledge of English with a view to reaching a common level of communicative competence – from intermediate to upper-intermediate (i.e. from CEFR B1 or Cambridge PET to CEFR B2 or Cambridge FCE).
Besides, by means of the tasks which students will carry out both in the classroom and as homework (written reports, oral presentations, activities for group assessment, etc.), they will develop general competences related to critical thought, group work and the selection, analysis and treatment of information.
Students will eventually achieve the following specific aims related to contents:
- They will know basic geographical features of the English speaking countries.
- They will become aware of the main events in the history of the British Isles, and they will understand how those events have contributed to the rise of the United Kingdom as a country.
- They will become familiar with the main aspects of contemporary culture.
- They will learn to relate those aspects to their own cultural context, and
- They will know how to introduce those aspects into the foreign language classroom.

Throughout the course, conceptual, procedural and attitudinal content will be introduced and developed. Regarding the conceptual content, students will become familiar with different aspects of British history, culture and civilization, that is, questions of identity, geography and history, politics and institutions, religion, education, work and economy, housing, Transportation and Social Welfare, Arts and Media.

Regarding procedural content, students will continue with the integrated practice of the four language skills in order to improve or consolidate their level of communicative competence in the foreign language. Finally, with regard to attitudinal content, students will develop the ability to appreciate cultural diversity and to show tolerant and respectful attitudes towards speakers of other languages, as well as to promote the development of these communicative and appreciative attitudes and skills in their future studies. students.


SYLLABUS AND TOPICS:


1. English Speaking Countries and Regions.
2. Varieties of English. English as a World Language.
3. History of the English Language and historical periods of Britain and the USA.
4. Literature and the Arts.
5. Students will have to read a selection of fiction/ essays representative of the different cultural backgrounds of the English
Language for each of these topics.

Collie, J. y Martin, A. 2000. What’s it like? Life and Culture in Britain Today. Cambridge: C.U.P.
Dargie, Richard. 2007. A history of Britain : the key events that have shaped Britain from Neolithic times to the 21st century. London: Arcturus.
Rogers, Pat. 1990. The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. Oxford: O.U.P.
Smith, J. 2012. Exploring British Culture. Cambridge: C.U.P.
Vaughan-Rees, M., Sweeney, G & Cassidy, P. 2007. In Britain. 21st Century Edition. Student’s Book. London: Chancerel International Publishers

Complementary

Gill, S. Cancová, M. 2003. Intercultural Activities. Oxford: O.U.P.
McDowall, D. 2006 (1989). An Illustrated History of Britain. Essex: Longman.
Musman, R. 1987. Background to English Speaking Countries. London: Macmillan.
Musman, R. 1993. Background to the USA. London: Macmillan.
O’Callaghan, B. 2004 (1990). An Illustrated History of the USA. Essex: Longman.
Oakland, J. 1986. British Civilization: An Introduction. London: Routledge.
Parker, Geoffrey, ed. 2017. The Times Concise History of the World. London: Harper Collins.

GENERAL COMPETENCES
G.1. Capacity to show the acquisition of knowledge of curricular areas, relationships, assessment criteria and didactics in Primary Education.
G.3. Capacity to face multicultural and multilingual situations of language teaching and learning, and capacity to read and make critical commentaries of texts.
G.4. Capacity to design and handle teaching and learning situations considering the principles of equality and respect for diversity.
G.11. Capacity to become acquainted with, select and use ICTs in the classroom.

SPECIFIC COMPETENCES
E1. Capacity to understand learning processes in six to twelve year olds considering the context of their family, society and the school.
E2. Capacity to know the features of students at these ages and the characteristics of their motivational and social contexts
E.52. Capacity for written and oral communication in a foreign language.
E.53. Capacity to develop and assess curricular contents using appropriate devices, as well as to promote the development of students’ communicative competence.

BASIC COMPETENCES
B.1. Capacity to show the acquisition of knowledge, particularly concerning the students’ field of study.
B.2. Capacity to apply the knowledge thus acquired to their professional field, with a view to developing arguments and solving problems.
B.4. Capacity to convey information in both specialized and non-specialized fields

TRANSVERSAL COMPETENCES
T.1. Instrumental knowledge of foreign languages.

Students will have weekly lessons (general lectures, interactive session and small group tutorials) throughout the semester. The teaching sessions will be held in English so that students will be able to develop the specific competence related to written and oral communication in a foreign language and the transversal competence related to the instrumental knowledge of foreign languages.
Both general lectures (for big groups) and interactive sessions (for medium-sized groups) will be devoted to the introduction of topics related to British culture by means of a variety of activities (oral and written texts with comprehension questions, multiple choice exercises, open-ended questions, role-plays, oral presentations, cooperative learning activities, etc.). These activities are focused on the development of the students’ communicative competence, critical thought and skills for group work. They will also contribute to enhancing their knowledge of cultural aspects of English-speaking countries while developing the students’ practical knowledge of ICTs.
The activities to be done outside the classroom will be focused on the development of both communicative and didactic skills. When carrying out those activities, students will apply and consolidate the knowledge acquired in the classroom while exercising autonomous learning.
Lastly, small group tutorials will be monitoring sessions devoted to the students’ supervision and to the encouragement of autonomous and cooperative learning. Students will also be advised to attend tutorials individually at the professor's office in order to be supervised.
This module will be taught in: English, Spanish, Galician.

The system of assessment for this subject (1st and 2nd time taken)will be as follows:
1. Active participation in classroom activities and homework: 10%
2. Continous assessment of written work: 30%
3. Final Written Exam: 50%
4. Oral Exams: 10%



The system of assessment for students who are legally exempt from attending class (1st and 2nd time taken) and students who retake this module will be as follows:
1. Continous assessment of written work: 40%
2. Final Written Exam: 50%
3. Oral Exams: 10%
*IMPORTANT NOTICE: In the USC Rules for Academic Performance (DOG 21 from 21 July, 2011, Art. 16) presenting fraudulent academic work for any type of final evaluation is penalized with a “Fail” in the corresponding exam period. Turning in this type of work may also result in a disciplinary process for the offender. Hence, any detection of plagiarism in any of the academic work turned in for grading in this subject will be penalized with a “Fail” in this subject, even when the student has passing marks in other areas of evaluation. As “plagiarism” we understand when an academic paper includes any partial or complete copy, in literal form or not, of content, or ideas published in other academic papers or in any other type of published format (paper or Internet), and where the student does not cite the source from which the said content or idea was taken. Students who fail because of plagiarism will not be allowed to take part in the second chance exam period.

As shown in the Degree Report, students are expected to devote about 112.5 hours to the subject. This amount of time will be distributed as follows: 38.5 hours of classwork and 74 hours of work outside the classroom. For further information about students’ work, see “Assessment” and “Recommendations for the study of the subject”

Students should work constantly throughout the course, plan their activities and devote some time every week to study and to the practice of the four skills. They should also revise or expand their knowledge by using the supplementary references and the Centre’s resources.
On Campus Virtual (Webpage) students will also find documents and further material related to the subject.

Prerequisites
There are no official prerequisites for this subject. However, an intermediate or close to intermediate level of English (CEFR B1 or Cambridge PET) is strongly recommended, as well as an acceptable level as regards written and oral communication in the students’ L1 (Spanish /Galician). Lastly, having passed the subject “Enseñanza y Aprendizaje de Competencias comunicativas: Inglés” is also highly recommended