National Day Resources
Sebah Al-AliIt’s hard to believe that the UAE was established only 43 years ago when you see all its achievements. National Day is a time of celebration and pride for citizens and residents. That pride and joy can be seen all over the Emirates this week, in schools, malls, streets… everywhere!
So, with all these celebrations, it would be appropriate for class discussions to give our students a chance to learn more about their country, and learn how to do that in English.
These are a few resources that you can tweak and play around with to suit your students/learning objectives.
UAE Numbers
The National posted a fancy interactive display to showcase data and numbers about the UAE. The iPad-friendly display talks about different topics related to different emirates. You can use these colorful charts to have your student practice
To visit this resource: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/heritage/the-union-of-the-uae-43-years-later—interactive
National Day Records
The UAE has set many world records, but this time, people in the UAE uniquely set a few national-day records:
1. UAE breaks world record for most nationalities singing one anthem at one time (video)
2. UAE World Record for most people carrying flag
3. UAE breaks Guinness World Record with football mosaic of the UAE flag
4. Dubai sets Guinness World Record for car parade
5. Abu Dhabi’s new world record: UAE flag with buses
6. Artists set new graffiti wall record (video)
Other world records were set in the UAE throughout the years; to learn about these records, this website could be a good start for you: http://www.uaeworldrecords.com/
Emirati Role Models
Although our students know about many well-known Emirati figures like rulers or singers, they are still not aware of Emirati people who are making a difference in their country. These are a few that I could find:
*Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi: UAE’s first female minister (one of her speeches)
*Salma Al Baloushi: UAE’s first female pilot (an interview)
*Adeeb Al Blooshi: A 9 year old Emirati inventor
*Ali Hilal Al Naqbi: An Emirati who invented an artificial liver
*Salma Hareb: first woman in the Middle East to lead a free zone (an interview)
To know more about UAE’s firsts, this could be a good start: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/society/shaikh-mohammad-honours-43-emirati-pioneers
UAE History
You can also utilize The National’s bank of articles and videos discussing UAE’s history and culture. They cover some interesting topics, like:
For more of these, please visit this archive: History Project Archive
And…
If you don’t fancy any of these resources, you can simply ask your students to explain what makes them proud to be Emiratis. My level 2 students needed to do a 10-minute brainstorm and use google to give me a reasonable explanation!
