IN THE CLASSROOM educating people in an environment of
globalisation. Often this is not a result
Making
culture
real
Gaby Zanini cooks
T
he lesson described in this
article is based on peoples
up a multicultural feast eating habits around the world,
but it could be extended to
of information for her other customs and habits in order to
bring further cultural learning into the
students. communicative language classroom. It
was first taught in an English class at a
Japanese university with the aim of
integrating language and cultural
learning through the study of the
differences in food customs for breakfast
in Mexico, Germany, Japan and Brazil.
The background
It is often difficult for host cultures to
appreciate and incorporate cultural
differences from minorities and
international residents. Diversity is still
too often thought of as a distraction, an
inconvenience or even a threat to the
majority culture, rather than something
of value for internationalising and
PHILLIP BURROWS
18 Issue 49 March 2007 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com
of conscious prejudice but, rather, the
consequence of a lack of social contact
because of the difficulties involved in
communicating in other languages
across a variety of cultures. Believe it or
not, this could describe a university or
college environment in modern-day
Japan, where there are now over
115,000 international students studying
and doing research. Most international
university students in Japan are from
other East Asian countries (eg China,
South Korea and Taiwan), but South
East Asians (from Malaysia, Indonesia
and Thailand) are also a sizeable
presence. Within the society at large,
there are also now close to two million
non-Japanese living in Japan, many of
whom are more comfortable using
English rather than Japanese as an L2
for communication.
It is often difficult
for host cultures
to appreciate and
incorporate cultural
differences from
international residents
If we are members of any majority
culture, it can be difficult to notice let
alone appreciate the cultural and
linguistic diversity that is all around us.
This is all the more true if the host
culture is predominantly monolingual.
Also, if a member of a minority culture
or nationality socialises mostly with
members of their own culture or
speakers of their own language, that
persons experience of the host culture
can be extremely limited.
The lesson
This lesson, which can be adapted to a
variety of language classrooms at the
post-secondary or secondary level, has
been designed to create a language
learning and practice situation in which
all the learners can actively express
themselves and learn about differences
through discussion about their eating
habits. Food is a natural first topic of
discussion in many cultures, so it also
makes a very good subject for language
and cross-cultural learning.
Aims
These are the learning and language
practice goals for the lesson.
To use English as a tool to access
information about other social groups
and other cultures (eg using the
internet or interviewing international
residents of a host culture).
To establish, classify, relate and
express in a common language the
differences and similarities that exist
within different nationalities, cultures
and language groups (in this case,
Mexican, German, Japanese and
Brazilian customs regarding
breakfast).
To provide linguistic input, revision
and practice related to food,
beverages, meals, food preparation
and eating habits.
To set up opportunities for other
language expression and
comprehension, such as writing up a
recipe or reading a recipe someone
else has written and trying to make
that dish at home.
Materials
Depending on size of class the teacher
will need to prepare the following:
Pictures and realia related to food
and beverages.
Texts based on interviews (oral or
written, eg in an email) about typical
German, Japanese, Mexican and
Brazilian breakfasts.
Printed copies of recipes (these can be
obtained online, see the links at the
end of the article). For example,
tortillas, German bread, miso soup,
fub cake.
Level
This lesson can be used with beginners
and above, at secondary or tertiary
levels. In university English classes in
Japan, students are often not placed
according to proficiency, interests or
motivation levels, so it is absolutely
essential for the teacher to try to set up
interaction schemes that most students
can participate in with a sense of
sharing, competence and achievement.
Functions and structures
The lesson focuses on the following
functions and structures:
Describing daily habits and routines.
Breakfast brainstorm
One way to give the activity lots of
language support would be to inform
the students that some cultures have a
different style of breakfast. For
example, while it is commonplace in
Japan, many westerners would find it
very strange to eat grilled fish,
fermented soya beans (natto) or a
tossed salad for breakfast. However,
since Japanese people might well
associate a tossed salad with a
western breakfast, as it does not, in
fact, form part of the traditional
Japanese breakfast, this creates a
rationale for more discussion. Similarly,
some Europeans might find an
American-style breakfast (with lots of
sweetened breakfast cereals) different
from their continental style.
Furthermore, at an international hotel in
Singapore, there might be Japanese
guests who choose a western-style
breakfast, but there also could be
many Japanese who opt to go to the
Chinese breakfast buffet. Which would
the students prefer and why? You
might ask students how many have
ever eaten Mexican food, to get them
ready to speculate on what a Mexican
breakfast might consist of.
Using simple present tense to describe
habits and routines (contrasting with
simple past tense).
Comparing and contrasting ones own
habits with those of others.
Comparing and contrasting the
customs of ones own culture with
those of others.
Warm-up discussion
Introduce the topic of breakfast to
the students by asking some of them
what they had for breakfast today.
Make notes of their answers on the
board.
Then, conduct a survey across the
entire classroom by asking What do
you usually have for breakfast?
This elicits the use of the simple
present tense for describing habits,
and contrasts with the previous use of
the simple past to relate what they
had for breakfast this morning.
www.etprofessional.com ENGLISH TEACHING professional Issue 49 March 2007
This topic is certainly fertile ground
for exploring and communicating
individual differences, but also
differences within a modern, westernised
Asian culture like Japan, and differences
across other categories like western
versus Asian or modern versus
traditional. One set of distinctions
within the topic of food culture which
Asian students find interesting is bread-
eating cultures versus rice-eating
cultures versus pasta/noodle-eating
cultures. For example, most Japanese
think the Chinese, like the Japanese, eat
rice as their staple. Some are surprised
to find that in some parts of China bread
is eaten more often than rice. Moreover,
there are many Asians who eat more
noodles than rice.
To Japanese students, foreign or
international most often means
American, but their understanding of
American culture is often based on
popular myths instead of real
information. For example, Japanese are
often shocked when North Americans
say that they eat potatoes more often
than they do bread or that they eat cold
cereal with milk for breakfast more often
than toast.
Write down (in the target language or
in bilingual translation) the most
common items. Students could be
asked to come to the board to write
one or more things they usually have
for breakfast. In an EFL situation
where the language level of the
students can range from absolute
beginner to lower intermediate (and
beyond), it might be appropriate to
ask students to write both the English
word and its translation.
Language activities
Vocabulary could be further
systematically presented and practised
through the use of semantic map
organisers, with topic clusters and sub-
clusters grouped around the main topic
word Breakfast. With careful planning,
more advanced-level vocabulary (such
as that required for tests like the TOEFL
or TOEIC) could be taught, with
organisation schemes around sub-topics
like carbohydrates, proteins, fats, fibre,
vitamins, minerals, nutrition, food pyramid, 
19
 Making
culture
real
 balanced diet, etc. One way to do
vocabulary work more comprehensively
is to complete a vocabulary task on the
board before the main activity and then
go back and revise and expand after the
main activity (so long as both teacher
and students keep careful notes).
Before breaking up for the group
task (below), there are many other
possibilities for whole-class discussion
and warm-up activities.
Group activities
Stage 1
Put the students into groups of four (in
large classes) or in threes or pairs (in
smaller classes). Ask them to discuss
and list, in English, what kind of food
and beverages they think the
nationalities they are being asked to
compare and contrast (eg Brazilian,
Mexican, German and Japanese) have
for breakfast. It is often helpful in large
classes, such as in Japan, to appoint
from the start one person to be the
recorder/reporter for each group.
It might be difficult to decide when to
bring the group discussions to an end,
but it is even more important in
classes in Japan to structure and
modify the group-discussion phase to
ensure more use of the L2. One
strategy is to break up the group
tasks into sub-tasks, so, for example,
you could have each group discuss
their guesses for Brazilian breakfast
and report them and record them on
the board before moving on to the
next nationality.
Stage 2
After time spent discussing, get each
group to report their ideas for all the
nationalities, and write these on the
board. Bringing everything back to
the whole-class level, lead a
discussion that will enable the groups
to compare and justify their answers
with those of the other groups.
20 Issue 49 March 2007 ENGLISH TEACHING professional www.etprofessional.com
Actual texts from some cultural informants
a Hello! My name is Paulus and
Im 30 years old. I am a student
and I come from Germany.
Usually I have bread with
cheese and coffee or tea for
breakfast. On weekends I
sometimes also have yoghurt
with fruit. b
a Hola! My name is Arturo and I
am from Mexico City. In Mexico,
I sometimes have for breakfast
Chilaguiles. Chilaguiles is a dish
prepared with tortillas and a
spicy sauce, and a tortilla is a
kind of very thin hot-cake made
of corn. b
a Konnichiwa! My name is Yuki
and Im 23. I am a student at
Fukui University and I live in
Katsuyama, Japan. I usually
Stage 3
The students written answers can be
checked with the texts in the box above
(interviews with cultural informants).
A reading-based follow-up step is to
give students some informative texts.
This is especially helpful if the
students all share the same cultural
background or if cultural informants
from other cultures cannot visit the
class in person.
Stage 4
Put the students into groups in which
they have to learn more about a
particular nationality and culture:
Brazilian, Mexican, German and
Japanese. Give each group a recipe
from the country they are
researching. Tell them that for
homework they have to find out
about eating customs in the country
they have been assigned and
investigate how to make the dish. In a
future class they will have to explain
this to the other students (possibly
using both L1 and L2 in some
situations). Presenting recipes is good
practice for using a lot of key
vocabulary, such as specific uses of
action verbs with predictable
collocations (chop an onion, boil water,
mix together, etc). Students could also
be asked to contact email penpals
have cooked rice and miso
soup for breakfast. Sometimes,
I also have western style
breakfast but I like the
b
Japanese style one.
a Oi! My name is Gabrielli and Im
29. I am an English teacher and I
live in Quatigu, Brazil. I usually
have coffee and bread with butter
for breakfast. Sometimes I also
have some cake. My favourite one
is Fub Cake. b
a
Hello! My name is Maren and I
am from Hamburg in Germany.
Im 29 years old and a student
of Japanese. Usually I have
bread with jam for breakfast but
sometimes I also eat yoghurt
with fruit. My breakfast drink is
black tea. b
from around the world, asking them
what they usually have for breakfast.
Stage 5
In their groups, students can prepare
posters in the L1 and L2 explaining
about the eating habits of other
cultures. These posters can be
displayed around the school, so that
other students can read them. This is
a good way to highlight the cultures
of any international students who are
studying at the school. ETp
Websites for recipes
www.bento.com/tr-miso.html
www.recipesource.com/ethnic/europe/
german/01/rec0117.html
www.cookbrazil.com/corncakebars.htm
www.dianaskitchen.com/page/bread/
tortilla.htm
Gaby Zanini has been
teaching English in state
secondary schools in
Brazil for over ten years.
She recently finished her
M Ed in Professional
Development at the
College of St Mark and St
John, Plymouth, UK. Her
research interests include
teaching approaches for
ELT, professional
development and cultural
awareness in ELT classes.
gabyzanini@yahoo.com.br