Photo on left: a mother prompts her daughter to use the gesture of greeting/respect/thanks. Cross-cultural communcation is ever-present in an ESL classroom.
School is a part of daily life and daily life is part of school. Since daily life is full of cultural nuances that are not obvious to outsiders, it should not be surprising that your teaching environment will also be full of cross-cultural interactions. The specifics will of course depend on your host country. In this post, I will share my experience with Khmer culture to give you an idea of the influence and effects of culture classroom interactions.
School is a part of daily life and daily life is part of school. Since daily life is full of cultural nuances that are not obvious to outsiders, it should not be surprising that your teaching environment will also be full of cross-cultural interactions. The specifics will of course depend on your host country. In this post, I will share my experience with Khmer culture to give you an idea of the influence and effects of culture classroom interactions.
Culture difference manifested themselves in different ways. Some differences were minor, and I picked up on them gradually. Usually, a local person or a teacher with more experience with the culture had to point them out to me. For example, in my Canadian culture, it is normal to gesture "come here" with a palm pointing upwards (1:40 but palm up). In Khmer culture, it is considered inappropriate, so I learned to gesture palm down. When I briefly touched a child's head, I meant it as a sign of affection, but I was eventually informed it was considered rude, because of certain spiritual beliefs. Another cultural gesture, one I figured out on my own, was how to give or accept something politely. Normally, I handed out or picked up assignments with one hand, piling them on my other arm. My teen students always seemed embarrassed when I did so. Not sure why, I observed them. They always offered and accepted hand-outs with both hands, or with their right hand while touching their elbow with their left hand. When I copied them, their embarassment disappeared. Some cultural norms were more broad than specific gestures. For example, when my students or neighbours came to my house, they would announce themselves with a "Hello!" and then walk right in. Older students and adults with more experience with foreigners would knock, aware of Canadian cultural norms, but I had to be flexible with both.
Two larger cultural differences directly affected teaching:
1. "Cheating" culture
For a number of reasons, including history and poverty, Cambodia developed a "culture of cheating". Giving your answers to others, copying off each other's work, plagiarism, etc. are practiced by even 'honest' students. I was told by the head of the center where I worked, that students at the local high school can pay a certain amount (about 50 cents) to the teacher to let them discuss their answers with their classmates during a test, and a larger amount to see the answers before the test. Identifying cultural issues and finding ways to work with or around them can be a challenge. An effective teacher would probably have been able to teach students the difference between helping/tutoring a weaker classmate vs. doing the work for him/her. All I was able to achieve was to establish that activities and exercises could be done in a group while tests were strictly individual.
2.Class traditions/management
I experienced a mild culture shock on my first Monday. I had a chance to observe the Khmer teacher I was replacing while he taught the Grade 3 class. Many of the classroom practices resembled what I always imagined existed in one-room schoolhouses of the Industrial Revolution. Students raised their hands, and then stood to give their answers or when called on to read. The teacher carried a long, thin stick. When a student misbehaved, he cracked the stick hard on the desk. I jumped a little at how loud the noise was but the students never blinked. It was normal to them, as was being hauled out of the class by their ear if they repeatedly misbehaved. A challenge for me was figuring out what to respect and keep, and what to change.
Other cultural/unique-to-this-class differences that came as a surprise was the traffic flow in and out of the class. My first day, someone's baby brother toddled in. His sister held him on her lap for a while, then he wandered around the class, reaching for objects on the desks and trying to eat my eraser. Sometimes students from other classes would randomly drop by and stand in the doorway to listen. My students often disappeared to do the same in other teacher's classes when I wasn't looking. Sometimes Grandmas stopped by for a while, or a stray dog. The door was always open because of the heat, so I had to find other ways to try to control traffic distractions.
More about culture differences you can explore:
The Importance of Body Language
Handshakes and Interpreting Body Language video may sound scripted but is informative regarding the amount of information conveyed through body language, how unconscious body language communication is for an individual from that culture and how difficult it is for an outsider to understand without being taught. Don't be discouraged by the complexity of body language, but know that you will probably make mistakes. Humility and a willingness to be
taught and to ask when you are not sure will help you avoid (or recover from) awkward situations.
More about gestures across cultures.
Two larger cultural differences directly affected teaching:
1. "Cheating" culture
For a number of reasons, including history and poverty, Cambodia developed a "culture of cheating". Giving your answers to others, copying off each other's work, plagiarism, etc. are practiced by even 'honest' students. I was told by the head of the center where I worked, that students at the local high school can pay a certain amount (about 50 cents) to the teacher to let them discuss their answers with their classmates during a test, and a larger amount to see the answers before the test. Identifying cultural issues and finding ways to work with or around them can be a challenge. An effective teacher would probably have been able to teach students the difference between helping/tutoring a weaker classmate vs. doing the work for him/her. All I was able to achieve was to establish that activities and exercises could be done in a group while tests were strictly individual.
2.Class traditions/management
I experienced a mild culture shock on my first Monday. I had a chance to observe the Khmer teacher I was replacing while he taught the Grade 3 class. Many of the classroom practices resembled what I always imagined existed in one-room schoolhouses of the Industrial Revolution. Students raised their hands, and then stood to give their answers or when called on to read. The teacher carried a long, thin stick. When a student misbehaved, he cracked the stick hard on the desk. I jumped a little at how loud the noise was but the students never blinked. It was normal to them, as was being hauled out of the class by their ear if they repeatedly misbehaved. A challenge for me was figuring out what to respect and keep, and what to change.
Other cultural/unique-to-this-class differences that came as a surprise was the traffic flow in and out of the class. My first day, someone's baby brother toddled in. His sister held him on her lap for a while, then he wandered around the class, reaching for objects on the desks and trying to eat my eraser. Sometimes students from other classes would randomly drop by and stand in the doorway to listen. My students often disappeared to do the same in other teacher's classes when I wasn't looking. Sometimes Grandmas stopped by for a while, or a stray dog. The door was always open because of the heat, so I had to find other ways to try to control traffic distractions.
More about culture differences you can explore:
The Importance of Body Language
Handshakes and Interpreting Body Language video may sound scripted but is informative regarding the amount of information conveyed through body language, how unconscious body language communication is for an individual from that culture and how difficult it is for an outsider to understand without being taught. Don't be discouraged by the complexity of body language, but know that you will probably make mistakes. Humility and a willingness to be
taught and to ask when you are not sure will help you avoid (or recover from) awkward situations.
More about gestures across cultures.