PAGES FROM A STORY-BOOK: AN ACCOUNT OF A BRITISH-HUNGARIAN PROJECT OF CULTURAL STUDIES ARIANNA KITZINGER* British Council, Budapest, Hungary ABSTRACT The article gives an account of a British Council project on the area of teaching Cultural Studies, which has been going on for four years in Hungary. It is a complex project of teaching culture, literature and language in an inte- grated way and aims to introduce new methods especially in language teach- ing at secondary schools. The frame of the article is the chronological order that covers the period from 1996 up to the present days. It shows the differ- ent stages from the beginnings, which go back to a British Council summer course for teachers at Lake Balaton. The next period includes the teachers’ effort to try out the new methods at schools and disseminate it among col- leagues at workshops and presentations. At present the group is involved in material writing. The article gives a short practical example of teaching liter- ary pieces from cultural aspects. The novelty of the project and its impact on Hungarian ELT is a key issue, which is also outlined. Besides methodological and pedagogical sides of the project, the psychological factors of teacher devel- opment and that of a closely co-operative work are also examined. The aim of the article is to prove that, on the basis of the Hungarian example, similar projects could be carried out in any place of the world where foreign lan- guages are taught. KEY WORDS British Council project; novelty; integrated culture, literature and language teaching; experiments; practical aspect; field trip; Britishness; cross-cultural aspect; material writing; teacher and student friendly material. CAUCE, Revista de Filología y su Didáctica, nº 24, 2001 / págs. 325-343 325 * Arianna Kitzinger is a teacher of Hungarian and English languages and litera- ture. She has a wide range of experience in teaching adolescents at secondary schools, young adults at a college of pedagogy and adults in language schools. At present she lives in Budapest and is involved in a British Council project which aims to integrate the teaching of language, literature and culture in secondary education. She is one of the authors of a cross-cultural coursebook, “Zoom In”, which is due to be published by September 2001.