Intercultural approach prepeared by teacher

Stage Three

• —The final stage is one of true intercultural education. Here, students expand their cultural knowledge by learning about all cultures of the world. Obviously, this stage is the longest and most difficult one. However, having studied the native and target-language cultures, students should already know how to look for and recognize different cultural aspects of other societies.
• —A few EFL textbooks contain texts and activities providing information about world cultures. Their main advantage is that they are written at a language level appropriate for the learners. Their serious drawback is that they typically present information about foreign cultures with no initial preparation of the students (a foreign culture is very often just a topic suitable for the introduction of some language aspect, such as the function of giving advice). In addition, the cultural facts are usually presented in a very superficial manner. The result is that students perceive such information as a curiosity, not as an important piece of knowledge. Therefore, textbook based exercises can only play a supporting role in the intercultural approach. To supplement the textbook, a wide range of activities from other sources can be applied. Some examples appear below.