Celebrating Christmas in Canada

Celebrating Christmas in Canada

Students: 14 adult ESL students at an advanced level in the English language. They all have high levels of literacy in their L1 and are learning English for academic purposes. The students are seem to be very interested in the Canadian culture and have been asking many questions about the upcoming holiday, Christmas. Many of the students have been living in Canada for close to one year and have not experienced the "Canadian Christmas".

Context: It is the early month of December and the students have been already reading, writing and hearing about Christmas in Canada. To date, they have already shared their cultural practices during Christmas, if any, and are now interested in the Canadian culture. They are familiar with the concept of Christmas and some key terms, like Santa Clause, Christmas tree, etc. The length of this class is two hours with one fifteen minute coffee break, after one hour.

Objectives:

▸ To practice scanning for information

▸ To recall and use vocabulary previously learned

▸ To learn and use new vocabulary:

-Christmas/Evergreen tree -Christmas Decorations (tinsel, ornaments, etc.)

-Christmas Carols -Christmas Presents

-Church Services -Roasted Turkey

-Christmas Stockings -Santa Clause

-Christmas Eve

▸ To foster interpersonal relationships through group work

▸ To practice using different descriptive words to illustrate an idea to a peer

Materials:

▸ Marx, D.F. (2000). Christmas. Toronto: Children's Press.

▸ Chalkboard/Chalk or Dry Erase Board/ Markers.

▸ Describe and Draw game rules (from Bryrne, D. (1979). Communication games: a teaching aid. Windsor: NFER Publishing.)

▸ Christmas pictures for Describe and Draw Game from magazines

▸ Magazines with Christmas pictures

▸ 14 pieces of poster paper

▸ Scissors/glue/tape

▸ Tape/CD player with Christmas carols

Procedures:

(1) Students participate in a discussion of the following questions: (45 min)

A. What do you already know about the Canadian Christmas? Have you ever celebrated Christmas in Canada before? What would you like to learn about celebrating Christmas in Canada?

B. (The teacher reads the book Christmas by David F. Marx, ensuring that all students can see the illustrations, to improve comprehension) What words come out of the book that you are unfamiliar with? (The teacher makes a list on board of unknown words). Following completion of the book, the class approaches the unknown word list on the board. The teacher explains the words using pictures from the book as well as relating the words to other things that they already know.

C. What are some interesting