Week 1 Mon/We/Frid FOCUS:
You could use the questions below as a broad guideline.
1. WHAT you think is the meaning of Intercultural Communication Competence? Is it just one thing that defines it? Or more? What have you noticed about what you do in the classroom?2. HOW do you use it in class?
Background: Elementary 2 class I teach three times a week with range of nationalities: Chinese, Tongan, Lebanese, Chilean, Indian, Pakastani, Sri Lankan, Iranian?.
My take on intercultural commmunicative competence at this level is the ability to describe the differences/similarities between a custom or tradition. They can not write much at this level so it is all oral activity. I am particularly interested in drawing out their views so I try to provide a safe environment to discuss anything eg this week: Ramadan, taking off shoes before you enter a house, the monthly custom of ‘pinch and a punch’ on the first of the month, the notion of ‘eve’ being the evening before a special day, Ramadan fasting and the similarity to Lent for Christians and Easter. What is your nationality?
The latter was interesting and I drew on the experience of my English parents who never quite felt like true New Zealanders for many years – even when I was a teenager and they had been here for more than 20 years and become citizens they still referred to themselves as English. I said it was OK to call yourself a Chinese New Zealander for example if you had PR. This seemed to satisfy them.
I have not had a lot of spare time this week so this has all been teacher led with short answers from the students. Once I have established a strong bond between all the students and myself, the class has settled down and the numbers are stable, I introduce group activities related to cultural exchange. I am hoping to make them reflect and consider future actions when I do this too.
Week 1 Pre Int class Tues Thurs:
Nationalities: Chinese, Burmese, Thai, Saudi, Afghani, Iranian
I have been using the pictures in the textbook to elicit cultural differences and they are able to say whether something is acceptable or not eg cutting nails in the office cf the bathroom or outside but any cultural comparison is still teacher led at this stage. There has not been any in depth discussion on fundemental beliefs underpinning the answers yet and the class number is still very unstable with students joining. This is very disruptive to the dynamics and does not set up a particularly trusting environment. Once the class has stabilised I hope to set up a more intercultural group discovery sessions.
Week 2 focus:
Please refer to the questions below as you prepare the reflection:
1. is communication only verbal?2.what do you think are some other factors? can you relate a class scenario from a past experience? how did you react? have you made a conscious effort to change the outcome in other classes since then?
Is communciation only verbal? NO Over 90% is body language. The emphasis is on speaking in class but in every situation I remind them that in western culture eye contact is important and that they are to use the READ, COVER (the text if it is a controlled practice dialog memorizing activity prior to free activity) SPEAK eye to eye. This is not the only part of body language I raise their awareness of; before speaking assessment we have a whole lesson devoted to body language related to good communication. I find BL fascinating and always include it in every lesson where textbook images lend themselves to interpretation or if it is necessary for ‘visual reading’ eg folded arms when arguing=can’t change my mind. GOOD OUTCOMES ALWAYS. Students are just as interested in finding out about cultural differences.
Other factors in communication include context, the need to speak at all, the environment, the physical ability of the student to respond in a freely physical way – blind/physically or socially challenged, cultural norms eg averting eyes does not always mean ‘shifty’ but can mean respect for authority in some cultures.
Everything has again been teacher led with simple yes no answers or talk in pairs in one class. In the other class for the first time I started with a teacher led discussion and followed up with small multicultural groups to discuss what would they do in the future.
The situation surrounded second hand things and their ideas about buying them or not. I introduced the concept that in NZ it is quite acceptable and there was no stigma attached. I asked why if it was in their culture and small groups had to think about what they would do if their children came home with second hand things or clothes!! Not enough time to feedback on this one.
Week 3 focus:
Is it only cultural background that shapes students’ attitudes, knowledge and skill? Do these influence classroom behaviors, study habits, writing styles, lecturer -student interactions, etc.?
Hi Yvonne,
When there is silence or non-participation in classhomesickness, family/financial problems and guide them to the counsellor if the behaviour continues for more than a few days.
Laughter is always a pretty good antidote to silence so I try to make the activities lighter to facilitate engagement and usually within a short time the situation is resolved. It is rarely because of cultural norm from my experience.
I pair the quieter one with a student lacking the strengths they have as another solution so that they are working with their strengths. Maybe it is a lack of confidence in speaking not engagement in the task. If the student just needs time to digest information before engaging, then I allow them the time but also point to autonomous learning sources on MOODLE.
Conflict situation 1: Chinese older man trying to take over the class – being called professor, students deferring to him, constantly bossing women around in Chinese and losing his patience with them when they appear to be slower on the uptake or his explanations aren’t as clear as perhaps he thinks. The student he is ‘coaching’ is the quiet one.
Reaction: FRUSTRATED and not as in control of my skills as I usually am. (If it gets any worse I am taking him to the Chinese counsellor.)
Current Solutions:
I asked him if he speaks in his own culture when the teacher is talking, (several times on one side) and in front of the class eventually.
I spoke to him alone several times with no change so I directed difficult questions at him and corrected him if he was wrong. (This was an extreme solution and caused him loss of face but there was no change in his behaviour and it called for a more radical approach.) I praised him if he was correct!
More recently I have had to intervene in a classroom activity where he was teaching in Chinese to a young Chinese man and asked him how many teachers there were in the class. I told him it was OK to teach them OUTSIDE of class time.
I pair him with a gregarious South American to make him concentrate on his English every day. This has worked best but if she is away, I pair him with a confident Indian male speaker. He resents it and quickly moves back to his Chinese ‘enclave’ but I am insistent.
Other solutions for silence:
Use mime, VAK activities and get them out of their seats (and comfort zones) as often as possible, direct easy questions to them so that they succeed.
Week 4 focus:
1. What were your initial assumptions about the different cultures in your classroom? What would you say was your initial Intercultural Communication competence? What caused you to form these assumptions?
2. Have you changed your perspective? What reasons led to this? How have you changed?
1. Initial assumptions which proved correct:
Asians do not question but tend to prefer passively taking in materials. Asian men will question before the women and if the teacher is a woman they will challenge her.
South Americans, Indian/Sri Lankan/Pakistani and middle Eastern nationalities tend to be more gregarious in their learning style but literacy skills will vary with education in their homeland or education at Unitec for more than a year.
African/refugee students from ‘Horn Of Africa’ vary in their literacy abilities but are generally communicative.
My IC competence is based on a lot of reading and experience with many different cultures over 26 years of teaching. I start each class with a ‘fresh slate’ but nearly always the assumptions are proved correct throughout the course. There are only occasional exemptions due to extroverted individuals or personalities not typical of the nationality/ on the extremes of a ‘cline’.
2. My initial IC competence 26 years ago was based on ignorance, inexperience communicating with other nationalities except for Maori and Fijian Indian in Auckland, based on prejudices and stereotypes. I had never lived in a foreign country before that time, only visited.
Living in a foreign culture forces you to analyse your prejudices and stereotypes. Being on the receiving end of prejudices in Japan was a shock and enabled me to see a different perspective. It confronted my biases and assumptions.
I put myself ‘in the shoes’ of the person I am communicating with to try and see their point of view. I make a lot more allowances for personality within a cultural ‘cline’ after meeting quite atypical Japanese when I lived there. I constantly read about culture, try and learn from other nationalities to widen my perspective on culture.
WEEK 6 Focus group
8 of us who took part in Indra’s research took part in an hour long session where we discussed points that Indra raised eg humour, our competence etc
FEEDBACK FROM INDRA 19 Sep 2012
Hello Yvonne,
It was really good of you to help me out today by sharing your thoughts and ideas. Very interesting and you should get a star stfor being culturally competent!. I’ll send you a copy of the transcript to reassure you that you’ll remain anonymous. Take care,Indra
