The Framework is an open-source online tool, a 360° View of Communicative Competence at Work. Designed by the Ontario Government the framework is a resource for foreign trained professionals to provide strategies, approaches, and areas for language development that support intercultural workplace communication. The tool does not come with a teacher's guide or classroom activities, but it can serve as a starting point for classroom conversations and independent study. The tool also includes a video and downloadable pdf.
The resources from this website below will be useful to instructors and learners in understanding culture. English Language Lessons (Canadian point of view). Below are two examples:
This guide for newcomers to Canada, prepared by the city of Vancouver, attempts to introduce newcomers in simple language to the First Peoples in Canada and their relationship with Canadian government, while also presenting ways to learn more about First Nations people in Vancouver specifically. It is written with the assumption that newcomers have limited opportunities to meet Indigenous people, and thus have limited awareness of their diverse culture and history. It provides hyperlinks to many useful online resources which could supplement a classroom unit on First Nations peoples or assist a student with an independent study project.
This YouTube quiz plays 22 different audio clips of native speakers of regional varieties of Englishes (British, New Zealand, Australian, Canadian, Singaporean, Jamaican, Welsh, Indian, South African, Irish etc). It is a really effective way to demonstrate to students that native speakers of English can sound very different from one another, and that there are many unique varieties of English spoken around the world, (even within different regions of the same country). Have your students take the quiz for fun, or better yet, have them watch you take the quiz!
TESL Ontario Blog – Aboriginal Lessons:
This TESL Ontario blog introduces instructors to a variety of methods for teaching Indigenous history and culture. It provides links for Talking Circles, land acknowledgement (CLB 5–8) and a lesson plan for the Ojibwa language.
http://blog.teslontario.org/aboriginal-lessons/
Strong Nations – Indigenous literature and lesson plans:
http://www.strongnations.com/
Best of the Reader – Canada’s Indigenous Peoples:
http://www.bestofthereader.ca/Ebooks/Canada's_Aboriginal_People.pdf
“When I Was Eight” – YouTube video based on the book by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margret Pokiak-Fenton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBrkJn3NeI
TESL Ontario Blog – Aboriginal Lessons:
This TESL Ontario Blog introduces instructors to a variety of methods for teaching Indigenous history and culture. It provides links for Talking Circles, land acknowledgement (CLB 5–8) and a lesson plan for the Ojibwa language.
http://blog.teslontario.org/aboriginal-lessons/
Strong Nations – Indigenous literature and lesson plans:
http://www.strongnations.com/
Best of the Reader – Canada’s Indigenous Peoples:
http://www.bestofthereader.ca/Ebooks/Canada's_Aboriginal_People.pdf
“When I Was Eight” – YouTube video based on the book by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margret Pokiak-Fenton:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBrkJn3NeI
This playlist on YouTube, produced by the University of Oregon's Centre for Applied Second Language Studies, consists of nineteen short videos intended for independent learning by students. The topics covered would provide a very helpful introduction to intercultural communication and pragmatics, and could be assigned for independent viewing or as part of small group discussion. The various themes would allow for interesting and lively cross-cultural comparisons between rules around politeness, backchannelling, social distance, discourse markers and more.
There are a number of excellent resources that can be accessed through this collection.
Free to join. Free access nationally. Must register then search Tutela Collections.
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https://tutela.ca/
