cohesion - European Centre for Modern Languages

y the CEFR and incorporated a cross-curricular approach and the project method.
Literacy, plurilingualism and pluriculturalism are the main components of the
curricula. Learners are encouraged to be involved in the learning process and to tailor
the content of the educational material to their needs and interests.
The general goal of the revised curricula for English is the acquisition of life skills and
attitudes within a changing and developing information society. The learning process
becomes more engaging with concrete aims for practical implementation within the
school and the broader social environment. Eventually, the learning process is
transformed into a procedure through which students “learn how to learn” through
practice by using information from all school subjects (Chryshochoos et al. 2002).
The revised curricula for English have also encompassed an (inter)cultural approach.
Learners discover how their own identity is defined by others in inter-language
communication and reflect on their own culture by acquiring ways of understanding
other cultures. The (inter)cultural approach provides a multiple perspective, whose
purpose is not to evaluate which opinion/belief is better but rather to become aware of
cultural stereotypes and their negative influence on people’s attitudes towards each
other. The learners can participate in group discussions, brainstorming activities, roleplays,
interviews and team work and consult different sources of information in order
to express their point of view. Learners are invited to work on projects and prepare
their own portfolios by working on simulations and realistic communicative tasks.
In the following section we describe (inter)cultural tasks for primary and lower
secondary school learners. The tasks correspond to the ideas expressed in the CEFR
and the revised curricula for English in Greece.
Sample tasks in primary school
Task 1
Pupils listen to short traditional musical pieces. They identify the types of musical
instruments (e.g. woodwind, string, brass or percussion as in the table below) heard and
the country each piece originates from.
Woodwind String Brass Percussion
the clarinet
……………
……………
……………
the violin
……………
……………
……………
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the trumpet
……………
……………
……………
the drums
……………
……………
……………