Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom
As TESOL teachers, we will have 100% cross-cultural students in our classroom. It does not matter if we are not in the United States, every country has different cultures that gather together as a group. We will always be dealing with different paradigms and different situations.
I was amazed about all the opinions that brother Ivers read in his class about how Asian students felt in an American university. We are influenced by our culture and how we were raised. I did not know the meaning of the word egalitarianism, so I looked up in the dictionary: "Egalitarianism is a philosophical perspective that emphasizes equality and equal treatment across gender, religion, economic status, and political beliefs." (Kenton, 2021, par. 1). Many cultures does not have that perspective, so it would be hard to a foreign student to accept it.
Brother Ivers gave an excellent advice in his lecture: Whenever a student is from a different place or ethnic group or does something anything "weird", we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Paradigms cause one to interpret reality in different ways. We do not know if that is very important to him/her, and we must be cautious with our reaction. I want to put into practice these principles and deal in a proper way with cross-cultural students.
Hi Ivanna I completely agree with what you wrote. Even though we don't live in the United States, we each have students from different countries. Here in Italy for example, classes abound with students from Africa and Eastern countries. Each brings with them their own wonderful culture and habits. It is essential for the teacher to know these customs in order to avoid involuntary offenses but still offenses.
ResponderBorrarHello Ivanna, I will put in practice the same experience here in Brazil. It's a continental country. In my city there are not only foreigners, but Brazilians from all subcultures. I think will be a nice experiemce. I have the chance to have students from every part of Braxil. Regards.
ResponderBorrarI want to put into practice these principles and deal in a proper way with cross-cultural students, too.
ResponderBorrar