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One great piece of content advice - if students are already familiar with the content in their own language, it will be much stronger in terms of student language learning. They’ll understand the context and thus, with this simple scaffolding, learn the content quicker, more sure.
Folktales are great for this, very universal. But proverbs and idioms also work. Every culture has its own way to say “a piece of cake" or “better late than never”.
This video has a rundown of many of the most common.
One way to have a lesson about proverbs in the classroom is to simply get students to share a proverb from their own culture/language. Translate it into English and then see if it has an equivalent in English.
Another way is to give students the starting part of a proverb. For example, “Where there is smoke ….” Get students to finish it off. Is it correct? Is there a similar, comparable proverb in their own culture?
It’s a fun activity for advanced learners (yes, so much heavy, dense cultural meaning here - so much be done at the advanced level, B2 and up). Here is a full set of premade materials for teaching proverbs.
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