Name of Artifact: Regional America Five Day Lesson Plan
Date: Summer 2003
Course: FL 663
Rationale:
The following artifact is a five day lesson plan for EFL students on regional
variety within the United States. If I teach outside of the U.S. at some point, I want to stress that our is a country
of people from many different places and cultures. I think that it is possible that people in other countries may judge
us by popular American movies and music.
As a teacher I would like to expose foreign students to the reality of America.
The lifestyle you find in New Orleans, for example, is very different from that in New England. I also want to make
my students aware that we have border cultures: places where two cultures share a common space and learn to live in peace
together. The U.S./Mexico border is one example of this, and another is in North Dakota where there are a lot of
indigenous people.
An added benefit of teaching the variety of cultures in the U.S. is that
with each region is a different dialect complete with its own slang and vocabulary. The day that we learn about bagels
and hot dogs in New York, we can also watch movie clips and listen to the dialog of New Yorkers. The next day we might
study southern California, for example. This way students can see how sharply the culture and language contrast in the
United States.
