Culture and Language Teaching: a pedagogical proposal based on Quindio´s cultural heritage to teach English to 9th graders in a rural school

Abstract

The process of teaching English has become an important challenge for the Colombian Ministry of Education. Through the last years, there have been several bilingual programs with the objective of having students finish the high school with a B1 level, based on the CEFR. In spite of the effort to accomplish this goal, the students do not feel interested in the English class, due to the traditional methods that focus the classes on grammar topics. One of the key factors when learning any language is culture; the relationship Language and Culture is unbreakable. For this reason, this research project tries to enhance this relationship inside the classroom, using Quindío’s Cultural heritage as the main topic in the English class. In this way, ninth grade students in a rural school located in the municipality of Quimbaya can learn a foreign language and empower themselves with knowledge about their own region.