Culture shock

Ewa | Mar 13, 2024May 09, 2024

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

• talk about the meaning and impact of culture shock;
• watch and discuss a video about culture shock experiences;
• analyse opinions on culture shock and express agreement or disagreement. 

This lesson focuses on talking about culture shock. Students share their experiences and perspectives on the topic, examine the stages of culture shock and discuss what the experience of a foreign exchange student might be. They watch and discuss a short video about experiencing culture shock, examine viewpoints about it and share whether they agree or disagree with them. Students can also do a vocabulary activity at the beginning of the lesson.

TALKING ABOUT CULTURE SHOCK

Before the main part of the lesson, you can do an extra vocabulary activity where students match halves to create phrases related to adapting to a new environment and culture. Then, the lesson starts with a warm-up in which students explain what the phrase ‘culture shock’ means using the words confusion, misunderstandings and unfamiliar. After that, they discuss questions about culture shock, its effects and their own experiences. Afterwards, students examine the stages of culture shock (honeymoon, frustration, adaptation and acceptance) and describe what they think the experience of a foreign exchange student might be like.

VIDEO AND MORE DISCUSSION

In this part of the lesson, students watch a video in which people describe culture shock. They complete statements about the things that surprised them in the video. After that, students answer questions and talk about different aspects of culture shock, advice for dealing with it and its impact on individuals. Then, they analyse and discuss things (e.g. values and beliefs, language, infrastructure and service, etc.) that might cause culture shock for foreigners coming to live in their country. Finally, students evaluate more statements about culture shock and explain whether they agree or disagree with them.

WORKSHEETS

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