Hello colleagues, Culture comes up a great deal in ESL classes, and we teachers often learn as much or even more than the learners during these conversations! Expanding the topic of culture to discuss world religions can also be a rich learning experience for everyone.
Here's a link to a blog post by Lauren S. Brown with some tips on how to approach discussing Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This topic can engage students in learning vocabulary as well as various practices that are unique to these different religions. It can also be a good learning experience to integrate some world geography into this topic. I agree with Brown that when focusing on Islam, it's important to include some discussion of recent events to ensure that everyone knows that the vast majority of Muslims, who represent the largest religion in the world at 1.9 billion members, are peace loving people and not terrorists.
The article also includes some additional resources that teachers can consult and possibly draw upon for lessons.
Of course discussions about religion can be sensitive, so care must be taken with this topic.
Your comments are welcome!
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP