Representaciones culturales del caribe colombiano Colombia´s Caribbean cultural representations for Russian campers Una experiencia de interculturalidad con jóvenes de un campamento ruso

Resumen

This paper reports an ethnographic study that explored the cultural representations of Colombia’s Caribbean region to engage a group of teenagers taking English at a summer camp in Siberia, Russia.  The need of promoting intercultural awareness while enhancing the teenagers’ language competence seemed essential since their behavior and ways of thinking were disengaged from learning about other cultures.  The authors implemented Cooperative Learning (Johnson, Johnson and Holubec, 1994) with tasks to share the participants’ and the teacher's views on culture.  The data gathered indicates that there were gains in awareness on cultural diversity.  By stepping outside their boundaries, the campers moved away from ethnocentric attitudes and realized about the meaning that peoples assign to traditions, and thus gaining intercultural awareness.