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British Studies classroom activity
The Millennium Dome in London's Greenwich is currently preparing for its National Identity section with a big survey on British national identity, sponsored by Marks & Spencer (visit the New Millennium Experience site and select the options on National Identity). This is a fascinating subject for exploration, and the following activity allows you to start an investigation of your own!
Alan Durant, Professor at the School of English, Cultural and Communication Studies, University of Middlesex, has devised the following British Studies/ELT resource for teachers. It’s a stimulating activity examining the concept of ‘Britishness’, which can be used either in class or as a handout. Do try it out, whether you are a teacher or a student, and please remember to acknowledge the author. There are obviously many ways in which the material can be used, and any feedback on how the activity worked in your class is welcomed.
Please contact:
Professor Alan Durant
1In this activity we explore the notion of 'Britishness'. To begin, circle one of the numbers beside each item in the list below; by doing so, you locate the item on a scale from 1 (least British or not British at all) through to 5 (very British or typically British). Just miss out any items in the list you don't know. (If you are working with a partner, discuss your ideas as you go along.)
2When you have finished, compare your results with other people's findings, if you are working in a seminar or class. (You may find it helpful to tabulate results on a board or OHP.) Discuss individual cases first; then try to identify whether there are any generalisations about the findings you can make. 3Now consider the following question: is there a common characteristic, or set of common characteristics, which consistently provides a basis for defining something as 'British'? Try to formulate a criterion (or criteria) for 'Britishness'. (There are no right or wrong answers. People living in Britain - as well as people living elsewhere but of 'British origin'- differ significantly in their unspoken intuitions on this subject; they also express quite different beliefs on the question whenever it is openly discussed). 4Finally, read the information provided below about each of the ten listed items (which has been compiled from popular reference sources). Do you wish to revise any of the judgements you have made either about individual cases or about overall criteria - in the light of this extra information?
Further information on the ten listed examples(adapted from popular reference sources)
A bat-and-ball game involving two teams of eleven players, competing on a pitch of 20 metres (22 yards) with a wicket made of three stumps at each end and set within a large oval ground. The game is English by origin, and has been known from at least the 1550s. It became popular in southern England in the late 18c; and rules were drawn up in 1774 and modified following the formation of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1787. Gradually cricket was introduced throughout the British Empire, while also remaining popular within Britain itself - though on a class-stratified and regionally-selective basis, being for instance far more common in England than in the rest of the British Isles. In the late twentieth century, cricket is probably more popular, and is played with at least as much accomplishment, in countries other than Britain, especially countries formerly of the British Empire such as India, Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies. Even so, cricket is often held to be stereotypically - 'quintessentially' - English, even the 'English national game'. Sometimes it is associated with the perception of a lost, earlier form of English life, made up of village greens, warm beer, and presumed gentlemanly characteristics of Englishness such as fair play, team spirit and individual excellence. Metaphorically, even, something deemed to be failing in 'English' standards can still be described as 'not cricket'. 
A common and cheap British meal, usually eaten as a take-away, and often served in grease-proof paper or old newspaper wrapping by fish and chip shops, which only in a minority of cases provide seating for eating on the premises. As a meal, fish and chips has fairly strong working-class associations, and rarely appears in guides to British cooking (where it is displaced by less common fish-based and seafood dishes). The chips served in fish and chip shops tend to be larger, and cooked in more oil, than French Fries served by global burger restaurant chains. With the exception of parts of coastal Spain and Portugal (mainly for British tourists) and in Australia and New Zealand, 'fish and chips' is not served in an analogous way in countries other than Britain. 
Jewellery (or regalia) used by Royalty on state occasions, and symbolising royal authority. The British set (except for the Ampulla and Anointing Spoon) were broken up at the time of Oliver Cromwell, and the present collection dates from the Restoration. In 1671, a renegade called Colonel Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels, but was captured... and then pardoned and pensioned by Charles II. The main items of the Jewels include: St Edward's Crown and Staff; the Imperial State Crown; the jewelled Sword of State used at the opening of Parliament; the Curtana (Sword of Mercy); the Swords of Temporal and Spiritual Justice; the Orb; the Royal Sceptre or Sceptre with the Cross (containing the great star of Africa, cut from the Cullinan diamond); the Rod with the Dove; the Coronation Ring (the 'wedding ring of England'); the Armillis (gold bracelets, given by the Commonwealth countries in 1953 for the coronation of Elizabeth II); the Ampulla (which contains oil for the anointing); and the Anointment spoon. Prominent among the jewels is the Koh-I-Noor (Persian 'mountain of light') diamond, originally part of the Aurangzeb treasure, seized in 1739 by the shah of Iran from the Moguls of India, taken back by Sikhs, but later acquired by Britain in 1849 when the Punjab was annexed. 
A range of related musical forms originating in Jamaica, characterised especially by syncopated rhythms achieved by off-beat guitar chords and prominent bass patterns. Reggae developed out of earlier Caribbean musical forms, including calypso and salsa, combined with influences from North American popular music such as soul and Tamla Motown. In Jamaica, the reggae music industry expanded to become by the mid 1970s one of the largest capital investment industries. In Britain, the form became popular initially in its ska variant, especially among white sub-cultural groups such as mods and later skinheads. Mixed, black-white groups, especially in the Midlands, evolved distinctive, new styles of reggae known as Two-Tone; and bands such as the Specials, UB40, and Aswad became popular - including in Jamaica (where reggae has continued to develop in a range of directions: dub; roots; lover's rock, etc.). Commercially, influence of reggae in Britain and worldwide was dramatically expanded as the result of the marketing of Bob Marley and the Wailers by the British company Island records (under ownership of Chris Blackwell, formerly a Caribbean resident within a colonial family). Further white popularisation of this black music form followed Eric Clapton's cover version of the song, 'I shot the sheriff' - which also contributed, because of some of Eric Clapton's published comments on race issues, to the development of the political movement Rock Against Racism. 
Chinese food is a widely-distributed and popular cuisine, not only in metropolitan centres but also in small towns, villages, and local housing estates. Most Chinese restaurants combine dining on the premises with a take-away service (in Scotland called 'carry out'). Except in more up-market cases, British Chinese restaurants typically blur the distinction between the various regional styles of Chinese cooking (Cantonese, Sechuan, etc), and are highly selective in the type and range of dishes offered. In many cases, Chinese cooking is adapted to suit a local palate (and often fish and chips are available on the menu under a separate heading, 'Western dishes'). Over the last three decades, the popularity of British Chinese restaurants has expanded from primarily the cheaper end of the restaurant range into the full spectrum of menus and kinds of decor, including expensive, Westernised nouvelle cuisine restaurants. 
A stereotypically upper-class, expensive department store in the Knightsbridge (SW1) area of London, widely associated with English tradition and extensively patronised by members of the British establishment (as well as by tourists and visitors seeking elements of English heritage). The shop is owned, however, by the Egyptian Mohammed Al-Fayed, among a range of business interests he holds in Britain (including a football club). Despite being a longstanding British resident, however (and also the father of Dodi, the final boyfriend of Diana, Princess of Wales), Mohammed Al-Fayed remains a controversial and to some extent 'outsider' figure, and continues to be denied British citizenship. 
A style of printed fabric, usually glazed and characterised by floral patterns, popular for furnishings and often now associated with an older generation and with well-to-do tastes. The word 'chintz' probably derives from Hindi 'coloured'; in England in the 16c and 17c, the term was used for Indian painted and printed cotton fabrics (calicos) achieved by processes of resist-dyeing and mordant-dyeing. Later, use of the term was extended to include European printed fabrics. In India, chintz textiles were made from very early times; and in England chintz became so popular by the early eighteenth century that in 1722 Parliament legislated against importation and manufacture of chintz in order to protect the British silk and wool industries. The legislation against manufacture was repealed in 1744. In mid 19c, chintz was superseded by a stronger fabric, cretonne, but became popular again subsequently as a style for soft furnishings. 
A main-course for a meal, in which beef is combined with a crisp batter pudding. It is widely believed that the dish was invented by frugal housewives in the north of England who were reluctant to see wasted the meat juices which fell into the dripping-pan beneath the spit. To make the accompanying Yorkshire pudding, a flour-egg-milk batter is poured into the roasting pan beneath the beef about half-an-hour before the end of the cooking time. In early forms, the pudding was commonly made the same size as the plate for the whole meal, in order to fill diners so that they would need to eat less meat. Yorkshire pudding is generally cited in cookery books and restaurant guides as an example of 'traditional' English cooking. 
A hard felt hat, known in the United States as the Derby hat. said to have been introduced by the Norfolk land-owner William Coke. Because Coke found that his tall riding hat was frequently swept off by overhanging branches, in 1850 he is said to have asked Locks, the famous St James's hatter, to design him a lower-crowned hat (the first 'Coke', or bowler, was made from felt supplied by Thomas and William Bowler). In the late 20c, the bowler hat is widely associated with an image of a City gent (a middle-class man who works in the financial institutions of the City of London), and, by extension, with an image of Englishness built on the close connections which existed in the 19c and early 20c between Empire and the London financial institutions (cf. Mary Poppins). Bowler hats are now uncommon in Britain (including in the city, where recent yuppie styles for men focus on variations around fashionable versions of the three-piece, often pin-striped suit, sometimes with brightly-coloured braces). 
Conventionally, the unpredictable nature of the British weather is believed to prompt people to talk about it, and to have constructed a range of idiomatic conversational openings based on it, such as 'Nice weather we're having, isn't it?'. Talking routinely about the weather is also common (perhaps as common) in many other countries, of course: about periods of excessive heat, about monsoons, about the amount of rainfall, etc. In a recent British survey, however, the climate was recently given as the main reason by 50% of British people who said that they would emigrate if given the chance.
If using in a class or on a handout, please acknowledge:
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