La alteridad en las clases de inglés

Abstract

This paper summarizes an action-research project carried out with advanced students of English at CELE-UNAM. The objective was to foster an attitude of openness to otherness: “The readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures and beliefs about one´s own” (Byram, 1997:57). In order to do so, the teacher-researcher explored a new way of working with four videos -two documentaries and two touristic materials- presenting images of Mexico City and Montreal. Through discussions, questionnaires, and interviews with students she aimed at answering the following questions: 1) What image of the foreign culture and of foreigners do students get from these videos? 2) After seeing both, a positive and a critical image of the cities, which image do students recall more easily? 3) How can documentaries and touristic videos help in developing openness to otherness in an advanced English class? The methodology as well as the research findings will be presented in this paper.