Traditions around the world

Introduction

Welcome students! Considering that we are now in “Unit 4: Traditions and Festivities” we have to study about traditions around the world. In Chile there are different traditions, for example “La Cruz de Mayo”, or “18 de Septiembre” too, and because we are familiar with them, we will focus on traditions of other countries. In this WebQuest you will find instructions for an activity in which you have to search for information about traditions of different countries.

Task

Students in pairs will have to choose one of the countries proposed on a list and answer some questions about the country’s traditions. Once the questions are answered, Students will present the information acquired to their classmates.

Process

First step: You have to choose a country from the following list. Then, you have to tell your teacher the country chosen to avoid repetition.

List of countries: https://www.farandwide.com/s/most-visited-countries-792c34d8901f4bc9

Second step: After choosing a country, you have to search for information about:

  1. How people greet each other (E.g hi, bonjour, ciao).

  2. What is their traditional food? Name two or three dishes.

  3. What traditions do they have? Choose one, it can be a religious or non-religious tradition. Write a short description of it including what it celebrates and the date of celebration.

Put the previous information in a short paragraph.

Third step: Read the paragraph with the information of the country that you chose in front of the class. It is not necessary to memorize it.

Evaluation

Conclusion

At the end of this WebQuest you have become more aware about cultural traditions of different parts of the world. To know more about different cultures will help you to understand better why the world is as varied as it is. However, the topics covered in this activity are not all you need to know, there are a lot of things that you can learn by researching about different cultures. We encourage you to learn more about all the cultures you are interested in.

The standards of this WebQuest are in line with the National Curriculum of Chile for 1st grade of high school, MINEDUC. Curriculum Nacional 1° Medio. As it was said before, it is based on the 4 Unit called “Traditions and Festivities”

Credits

Teacher Page

The WebQuest was designed to work with students of 1st grade of a subsidized high school around the A2 level. The second activity related to the OA2;7 of the Chilean Curriculum was adapted to work with this group of students. The adaptations were made to facilitate students' understanding of the activity since it could be too subjective for this group to not have any ‘’guide’’ of what type of information they had to search.

The activity uses the four skills of language, but it focuses on reading (to search information about the selected country) and speaking (to present the product of their search to their classmates). Also, new vocabulary is practiced.