I will be posting some writing inspired by my TESOL classes this year. Here is a piece that has to do with culture in the classroom. As you will see, it is difficult to know how and when to elicit equal participation from people from different cultures and ages in the same class. In the US classroom and for American teachers, student participation and verbosity is highly praised. If we are teaching English, we are also teaching this aspect of US classroom culture. It really goes together. I cannot imagine teaching English by lecturing and having students take notes the entire time, although this is how classrooms in other countries work. So the challenge is to get students to understand they are not losing their identity by acting more American in the classroom, but they are learning to fit in to international communication situations with English skills AND culturally appropriate behavior.
When I substitute taught for a Business English as a Second Language class in Boston, I experienced an intercultural problem. The teacher had prepared me with a handout for class to read about ways to deal with change and stress in business. The class plan was heavy on discussion. The problem was trying to encourage equal participation between all students during open class discussion.
There were six students: a 40 year old Spanish man, a 30 year old German man, two Korean women in their mid-20’s, a Panamanian woman in her mid 20’s and a 20 year old Turkish man.
When it was time to discuss, I called on specific students but at times also asked the entire class, whoever felt like speaking, to answer.
I found that in open class discussion, the European men completely dominated class conversation. Each one spoke on his own at length about a topic and then at one point they even got into a heated debate about something just between the two of them. I had to actively moderate discussion to give other students a chance to contribute. Both of the men had significant experience in the business world which helped support their arguments when talking about the class material, but also made it difficult for others to follow them. Both were very straightforward when giving their opinions and comfortable interrupting others. Their English also seemed a bit more advanced than the others’, but after just one class meeting it was hard for me to tell if their English was better or they were just more confident speakers.
The next most talkative student was the young Turkish man. He spoke assertively when asked his opinion. However, it seemed he did not want to be as bold or talkative as the other older European students.
After him, the next most talkative student was the Panamanian woman. She was able to talk about herself, but did not want to give many opinions about business advice.
The young Korean women were even less eager to speak up. When called on, one would giggle and shy away from answering, telling me she did not have a good answer. However, when I waited and encouraged her she gave a good response. The other two Korean women were a bit more bold in answering, but still comparatively shy with the men in class.
At the end of class I asked students to summarize information from the handout. When asked to share with the class, the European students gave their own individual opinions which were not really a summary but were interesting nonetheless. After they spoke I called on one of the Korean women and she refused to answer because, she told me, she thought she had to give her own personal opinion too. I reassured her what I asked for was just a summary and either a summary or opinion would be fine, so she was comfortable giving a summary.
The learning process, in this case learning English conversation with a business focus, was affected because the Spanish and German men essentially got more English speaking practice time than the others. The other students’ reactions to the Spanish and German men’s verbosity ranged from annoyed to indifferent to intimidated. On the other hand, the Spanish and German men seemed annoyed with the quieter students for not holding their part of the class conversation.
Some questions that this class brings to mind are: How do culture, race, gender and age affect learning and class participation in a mixed group? What are the dis/advantages of having a mixed group like this one? As a teacher, how can I make oral participation more equitable even among students who are not used to speaking up in classroom settings? How can I help students to learn to communicate across cultures using English? In other words, how could I get the Europeans to be more patient and the rest to be bolder? How can I encourage students to give their own opinions if they come from a culture where giving one’s own opinion is frowned upon? How can I assess speaking if I am not sure if I am hearing a student’s ability or confidence or lack thereof?
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