Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract/Objectives
The purpose of the present study is to investigate the influence of the implementation of the local culture curriculum in the English Scenario Classroom focusing on environmental and vocabulary knowledge. The participants were 20 sixth-graders who received an issue-integrated curriculum for nine weeks. To address the research questions, quantitative data and qualitative datawere collected. The findings revealed that the integration of local culture into environmental education was effective in providing students with relevant background knowledge and implementing the curriculum in an English Scenario Classroom could facilitate learners’ situated learning. The curriculum was also effective in increasing the students’ environmental knowledge. Realia, images, technology, and hands-on activities helped students recognize the spoken forms and word meanings of the target vocabulary.
Results/Contributions

Integrating local cultural issues into environmental education can increase students’ environmental and vocabulary knowledge. First, this instruction was implemented in an English Scenario Classroom, where students learned through situated learning. The benefits of situated learning for students are that it provides learners with an immersive learning environment. Situated learning provides opportunities for interaction between learners as well. Second, rich exposure to issue-related picture books, realia, hands-on activities, and technology enhanced students’ environmental and vocabulary knowledge. Picture book reading is a mode of instruction for young learners to promote their language abilities and conceptual knowledge. One of the critical advantages of using realia is its direct link to culture, allowing learners to pay attention to subtle differences between the target learning. Moreover, technology can be significantly helpful as it provides suitable context as well as interactive tasks and activities which can meet students’ various linguistic and communicative needs in learning a foreign language. Third, integrating local culture into the environmental curriculum allowed learners to gain relevant background knowledge. It also built up the learner’s cultural knowledge, awareness, and competence. During the teaching and learning process, the students learned a foreign language and content knowledge and became aware of preserving their local culture. Implementing the local culture curriculum in the English Scenario Classroom proved effective for improving or maintaining the students’ environmental and vocabulary knowledge.

Keywords
environmental educationlocal culture curriculumenvironmental knowledgevocabulary learningEnglish situated learingEnglish Scenario Classroom
References
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAkPde1bAMI

紅樹林生態遭遇的危機