Study Abroad Article Worksheets

This file contains a set of 7 articles related to studying abroad. When we study our “Study Abroad” unit in Spoken English class, students break up into seven groups, and each group is responsible for a 1-2 page article somehow related to studying abroad. After reading and discussing the article, students share the content of their articles with the class. Several of the articles come from the VOA Student Union website and are written by international students studying in America– it’s a good perspective for my students in China to learn from.

To download the PDF that contains these study abroad articles, complete with a wide side margin for content and vocabulary notes, click here: Study Abroad Articles

Here is a preview of two pages from the 12-page document. The first is the first page of a 2-page article; the second one previewed here is a one-page article.:

 

Introduction to English-Speaking Countries PPT Game

We play this game on the first day of our Survey of English-Speaking Countries class. The students love it.

Basically, students divide into two or three teams and then take turns choosing a topic and level of difficulty (like Jeopardy). They then see a picture or question that corresponds to their choice and they must identify which country matches with the picture or question. I sometimes give them bonus points if they can give me more information (eg. the name of the animal in the picture, a movie that the pictured actor has starred in, etc.).

To download the PowerPoint game, click here: English Countries Game

Here are some preview slides:

 

Culture of English-Speaking Countries PPT: America

For each of the Culture of English-Speaking Countries course fact sheets, I’ve made a corresponding PowerPoint presentation that more or less follows the same line of content to be used as visual support during the fact sheet lecture.

I put these presentations together about two years ago, so a few of the statistics may have changed; however, the enduring cultural information is accurate. Like the fact sheets, these presentations use simple English and often really simplify what can be some very complex topics. As always in culture classes, the teacher should emphasize that each country has many individuals and so we cannot and should not over-generalize; we can just notice trends and traditions practiced by large groups of a population.

*This particular PPT has a quiz about American social norms at the beginning; the questions and answers came from another website. I left the answers unchanged but disagreed with a few of them. I use it as a good opportunity to further discuss with students differences even within one country’s culture.

Please feel free to use, edit, and share them as needed.

To download the PowerPoint presentation for America, click here: BE USA PPT

This PowerPoint presentation compliments the America Fact Sheet from an earlier post.

Here are some previews of a select few slides from the presentation.

Culture of English-Speaking Countries PPT: United Kingdom

For each of the Culture of English-Speaking Countries course fact sheets, I’ve made a corresponding PowerPoint presentation that more or less follows the same line of content to be used as visual support during the fact sheet lecture.

I put these presentations together about two years ago, so a few of the statistics may have changed; however, the enduring cultural information is accurate. Like the fact sheets, these presentations use simple English and often really simplify what can be some very complex topics. As always in culture classes, the teacher should emphasize that each country has many individuals and so we cannot and should not over-generalize; we can just notice trends and traditions practiced by large groups of a population.

Please feel free to use, edit, and share them as needed.

To download the PowerPoint presentation for The United Kingdom, click here: BE UK PPT

This PowerPoint presentation compliments The United Kingdom Fact Sheet from an earlier post.

Here are some previews of a select few slides from the presentation.

Culture of English-Speaking Countries PPT: Ireland

This PowerPoint is used during the Culture of English-Speaking Countries course that I teach; it compliments the Ireland Exploration activity from a previous post.

Like many worksheets on this site, this presentation uses simple English and often really simplifies what can be some very complex topics. As always in culture classes, the teacher should emphasize that each country has many individuals and so we cannot and should not over-generalize; we can just notice trends and traditions practiced by large groups of a population.

Please feel free to use, edit, and share as needed.

To download the PowerPoint presentation for Ireland, click here: BE Republic of Ireland PPT

Here are some previews of a select few slides from the presentation.

Culture of English-Speaking Countries PPT: New Zealand

For each of the Culture of English-Speaking Countries course fact sheets, I’ve made a corresponding PowerPoint presentation that more or less follows the same line of content to be used as visual support during the fact sheet lecture.

I put these presentations together about two years ago, so a few of the statistics may have changed; however, the enduring cultural information is accurate. Like the fact sheets, these presentations use simple English and often really simplify what can be some very complex topics. As always in culture classes, the teacher should emphasize that each country has many individuals and so we cannot and should not over-generalize; we can just notice trends and traditions practiced by large groups of a population.

Please feel free to use, edit, and share them as needed.

To download the PowerPoint presentation for New Zealand, click here: BE NZ PPT

This PowerPoint presentation compliments the New Zealand Fact Sheet from an earlier post.

Here are some previews of a select few slides from the presentation.

Culture of English-Speaking Countries PPT: Canada

For each of the Culture of English-Speaking Countries course fact sheets, I’ve made a corresponding PowerPoint presentation that more or less follows the same line of content to be used as visual support during the fact sheet lecture.

I put these presentations together about two years ago, so a few of the statistics may have changed; however, the enduring cultural information is accurate. Like the fact sheets, these presentations use simple English and often really simplify what can be some very complex topics. As always in culture classes, the teacher should emphasize that each country has many individuals and so we cannot and should not over-generalize; we can just notice trends and traditions practiced by large groups of a population.

Please feel free to use, edit, and share them as needed.

To download the PowerPoint presentation for Canada, click here: BE Canada PPT

This PowerPoint presentation compliments the Canada Fact Sheet from an earlier post.

Culture of English-Speaking Countries PPT: Australia

For each of the Culture of English-Speaking Countries course fact sheets, I’ve made a corresponding PowerPoint presentation that more or less follows the same line of content to be used as visual support during the fact sheet lecture.

I put these presentations together about two years ago, so a few of the statistics may have changed; however, the enduring cultural information is accurate. Like the fact sheets, these presentations use simple English and often really simplify what can be some very complex topics. As always in culture classes, the teacher should emphasize that each country has many individuals and so we cannot and should not over-generalize; we can just notice trends and traditions practiced by large groups of a population.

Please feel free to use, edit, and share them as needed.

To download the PowerPoint presentation for Australia, click here: BE Australia PPT

This PowerPoint presentation compliments the Australia Fact Sheet from an earlier post.

Here are some previews of a select few slides from the presentation.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bethanysirles/15068570762/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bethanysirles/15068930965/

 

Teaching American Manners: Free PPT and Printable Worksheet

I use this lesson in both my Survey of English-Speaking Countries class and my American Society and Culture class. Basically, we spend the first of our 45-minute class periods going through the worksheet with the corresponding PowerPoint and I share several experiences and examples that support several of the key differences between manners in America and manners here in China. This is a fun time full of laughter for most classes. Note: In lessons like this, it’s really important to emphasize to students that while it’s important for them to understand Western manners, we the teachers really understand them using their own country’s manners while we are all living in their country together– we do not expect them to fully go into American-manners mode whenever we interact.

During the second class period, students perform role plays in which some of the players follow American manners and some do not. This is mostly just for fun, but it does really reinforce some of the manners we discussed in the first period and gives them a chance to further explore how they might feel to experience a clash between the manners they’re used to and those the people around them use.

To download the American Manners PPT, click here: American Manners

To download the American Manners worksheet, click here: Manners

Here are some previews of a select few PPT slides:

Here’s a preview of the worksheet:

The words that fill in the blanks on the worksheet are (in this order): chew, place of honor, napkin, wine, smoke, about 5, early, make yourself at home, old, specific/ negative, sexy, sorry, excuse me, advice, spit, race, gender, appearance, first, end, toothpick, earphones, quietly, neighbors, horn, rude, disruptive.

I added letters at the end of each manner so they’d be more easily identifiable for my students. This also lent itself to a nice activity where we divided the manners and sorted them between which ones were the same in China and which ones were different.

Supplementary Culture Article: The College Library: A Social Hub on Campus

This is another fairly easy article for use in culture class. This article explores the function of college libraries in America, which I’ve found to be surprisingly different (mostly just broader) from university libraries here in China. This article makes for an interesting supplementary read during my English-Speaking Countries class. Students are always interested in learning about education and university life abroad.

To download the article worksheet for “The College Library: A Social Hub on Campus,” click here: College Libraries (Education for Any Country)

Here’s a preview: