02/19/2022 - Week 07 – Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom
Until I started studying this TESOL course, I had never thought of a class with students from different cultures. My vision of a classroom with students learning English was limited to what I knew: only Brazilian students in the classroom. Although there is a cultural difference within Brazil in terms of behaviors, students speak the same language.
In the first semester of this course called Introduction to TESOL, I saw for the first time a non-Japanese teacher teaching only Japanese students. I thought: How is this possible? Since that day, I realized that teaching a language goes far beyond speaking another language, it is somehow connected with who we are and who we will be after learning this new language.
Each of us brings some cultural paradigms and we express this sometimes without realizing it and it would be no different in a classroom. In a classroom with students from different places, students can behave differently, that is, according to the cultural paradigms of each one. Watching the video "Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom," I reflected on how small acts are interpreted by people in different cultures and how it impacts them positively or negatively. In my point of view, it’s harder to avoid expressing our culture through our behaviors than avoiding misunderstandings of student behavior.
As a teacher, my role cannot be to judge or criticize students for different behaviors, even if my paradigms are different, my role is to look at them in a different way. Think of a student in a TESOL classroom interrupting the teacher to ask questions, trying to understand what is being taught, and the teacher saying "We don't do that here, wait for me to finish talking." Even if it is not part of the teacher's culture for students to interrupt, this misunderstanding can be clarified in another way, such as taking advantage of what the student is asking and opening a time for questions, or after the class, talking to the student praising him for trying to understand the content and asking what it was like in his country. The teacher can even make this student a kind of helper in the classroom, combining moments when the student will help, so the student will not feel judged for behavior and will have the right moments to act.
The more I study, the more I realize how important being a teacher is and will impact students' lives. I can show the way to go when it comes to dealing with different cultures, acting positively in a time of cultural disagreement by setting an example for students.
In the first semester of this course called Introduction to TESOL, I saw for the first time a non-Japanese teacher teaching only Japanese students. I thought: How is this possible? Since that day, I realized that teaching a language goes far beyond speaking another language, it is somehow connected with who we are and who we will be after learning this new language.
Each of us brings some cultural paradigms and we express this sometimes without realizing it and it would be no different in a classroom. In a classroom with students from different places, students can behave differently, that is, according to the cultural paradigms of each one. Watching the video "Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom," I reflected on how small acts are interpreted by people in different cultures and how it impacts them positively or negatively. In my point of view, it’s harder to avoid expressing our culture through our behaviors than avoiding misunderstandings of student behavior.
As a teacher, my role cannot be to judge or criticize students for different behaviors, even if my paradigms are different, my role is to look at them in a different way. Think of a student in a TESOL classroom interrupting the teacher to ask questions, trying to understand what is being taught, and the teacher saying "We don't do that here, wait for me to finish talking." Even if it is not part of the teacher's culture for students to interrupt, this misunderstanding can be clarified in another way, such as taking advantage of what the student is asking and opening a time for questions, or after the class, talking to the student praising him for trying to understand the content and asking what it was like in his country. The teacher can even make this student a kind of helper in the classroom, combining moments when the student will help, so the student will not feel judged for behavior and will have the right moments to act.
The more I study, the more I realize how important being a teacher is and will impact students' lives. I can show the way to go when it comes to dealing with different cultures, acting positively in a time of cultural disagreement by setting an example for students.
Lilian Perez
Teachers from different cultures teaching English.
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