Andy Gillett looks at ways in which professional English language teachers can help other members of staff communicate better with international students.
In my present job, I am often asked if I can help other members of staff, both academic and non-academic, to communicate with international students better. At the IATEFL conference in Brighton this year, I tried to explore ways in which experienced professional language teachers can use their knowledge and experience to do this. How can intercultural communication be improved? How can we communicate better with a student from another culture, from another education system, of a different age, who speaks a different language?
After looking at problems with some definitions of communication, I suggested that in order to communicate well with someone from a different culture, knowledge of that person' s culture was necessary. This might be fine for people going to live in another country or for people who deal mainly with people from one or two other countries or cultures. However, this is impossible in a large university like the University of Hertfordshire which could have students from 80 different countries. I felt the most important objective of any training course was to raise people' s awareness of areas of difference.
There are five broad areas that I had found useful to look at:
1. Cultural behaviour. People from different cultures do things in different ways.
It is important to increase our awareness of and sensitivity to culturally different modes of behaviour. We need to recognise different cultural patterns at work in the behaviour of people from other countries and cultures.
It is also useful to be aware of how our own cultural background influences our behaviour. And we need to develop tolerance for behaviour patterns that are different from our own.
Some useful areas to look at are:
Silence
Time
Distance and personal space
Touching
Body language
Posture & movement
Eye contact
Tomalin & Stempleski (1993) have some useful photcopiable exercises here.
2. Students' perception/expectations.
It is important to try to see what expectations the students have of studying and living in this country, to try to see the learning process and experience of living here from the students point of view. How do students see the learning process? What is the role of the teacher/host family? What part is the student expected to play in all this? What are the conventions in British families or schools and universities?
What can students expect and what is expected of them? In the UK, teachers tend to believe that we learn through interaction and discussion. Individual ideas and opinions are encouraged and expected. In many parts of the Far East students are taught to learn through imitation and observation. They believe that they need to internalise the existing knowledge before contributing their own ideas.
Educational institutions and families could help by making their expectations of the student' s role clear.
Jin & Cortazzi (1993)is a useful starting point for discussion of the student' s role in higher education. Underhill (1991) also has some useful ideas on both learning and loving in Britain.
3. Culture
Most teachers, secretaries and host families will share the same culture, but not all learners will. Culture is an inherited wealth in which we all can share, but it is passed on to us from different sources, and we share it in different parts with different groups to which we belong. What cultures do lecturers or host families and Students in Higher Education share? What knowledge is expected/presupposed?
Roger Bowers (1992) provides a useful quiz that can be used, or adapted for use , with students, teachers or others. He sees culture as a mixture of memories, metaphors, maxims and myths. Different groups of people share in this knowledge in different ways.
4. Cross cultural pragmatics
It is often difficult for speakers of other languages to understanding " what is meant" by " what is said" . It is also difficult for mono-lingual speakers to understand that this is a problem. People from different cultures use language to do things in different ways. A student who says, " Give me a coffee" is seen as rude by an English speaker in the UK. Jenny Thomas defines politeness as a linguistic phenomenon rather than equating it with any moral disposition towards one' s interlocutor. The student is therefore making a linguistic error rather than being rude.
Some examples which have been studied are:
Complimenting
Apologising
Requesting
Inviting
Offering and responding
Thomas (1995) has some useful ideas. Tannen (1992) has some good examples of communication going wrong.
5. Language
We all, as language teachers, know about language problems, but how can we help people who are not English teachers to deal better with International students. Second language speakers may:
be unfamiliar with much idiomatic or technical English
be unfamiliar with jargon/acronyms
not be used to hearing English - speed of delivery is a problem
not be used to the pronunciation of some words
not be familiar with complex language
have particular difficulty with some areas of language
e.g. prepositions cause trouble " the price rose to £ 5.00" , "the price rose by £ 5.00"
have trouble understanding contractions - wouln' t' ve
Students in higher education have particular difficulty understanding their lecturers. Although as an ESP teacher, my main role is to analyse the language the students will be exposed to and help my students to deal with it, not to get the lecturers to change their language, at the University of Hertfordshire, I give the following advice to lecturers who ask for help in making their language more accessible to Students in Higher Education:
Lectures
Make your organisation clear
Support the lecture with writing/visuals/OHP/handouts
It is useful to provide a core word list
Be careful with handwriting on the board
Provide reading before the lecture
Speaking
Don' t keep changing the subject - make one point at a time
Signpost
Summarise often
Repeat if necessary
Be careful of background knowledge assumed
Avoid unfamiliar, idiomatic or technical English - use formal language
Be careful of speed of delivery/clear pauses etc.
Pronunciation clearly
Do not talk while eating or with your back to the audience: face the class
Be careful of background noise etc.
Organise questions - ask students to write them down or prepare in groups
Be explicit
Assignments
Set written coursework early in order to identify problems
Give clear instructions for coursework
Provide clear feedback in written work but be careful with handwriting
Exams
Set exams as late as possible to allow students to improve their English
General
Provide a simplified brochure/application form
Provide an international student tutor
Don' t try & answer grammar questions - give a model of good English
Leave grammatical explanations to the experts
Assume different expectations so be specific
If everyone in the institution who deals with Students in Higher Education is helped to become aware if these differences, communication will be easier for everyone.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2010)
Intercultural communication principles guide the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimises antagonism. For these purposes, culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms of behaviour. It refers to coherent groups of people whether resident wholly or partly within state territories, or existing without residence in any particular territory. Hence, these principles may have equal relevance when a tourist seeks help, where two well-established independent corporations attempt to merge their operations, and where politicians attempt to negotiate world peace. Two factors have raised the importance of this topic:
improvements in communication and transportation technology have made it possible for previously stable cultures to meet in unstructured situations, e.g. the internet opens lines of communication without mediation, while budget airlines transplant ordinary citizens into unfamiliar milieux. Experience proves that merely crossing cultural boundaries can be considered threatening, while positive attempts to interact may provoke defensive responses. Misunderstanding may be compounded by either an exaggerated sensitivity to possible slights, or an exaggerated and over-protective fear of giving offence;
some groups believe that the phenomenon of globalisation has reduced cultural diversity and so reduced the opportunity for misunderstandings, but characterising people as a homogeneous market is simplistic. One product or brand only appeals to the material aspirations of one self-selecting ***** of buyers, and its sales performance will not affect the vast multiplicity of factors that may separate the cultures.
Jump to: navigation, search
This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (February 2010)
Intercultural communication principles guide the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimises antagonism. For these purposes, culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms of behaviour. It refers to coherent groups of people whether resident wholly or partly within state territories, or existing without residence in any particular territory. Hence, these principles may have equal relevance when a tourist seeks help, where two well-established independent corporations attempt to merge their operations, and where politicians attempt to negotiate world peace. Two factors have raised the importance of this topic:
improvements in communication and transportation technology have made it possible for previously stable cultures to meet in unstructured situations, e.g. the internet opens lines of communication without mediation, while budget airlines transplant ordinary citizens into unfamiliar milieux. Experience proves that merely crossing cultural boundaries can be considered threatening, while positive attempts to interact may provoke defensive responses. Misunderstanding may be compounded by either an exaggerated sensitivity to possible slights, or an exaggerated and over-protective fear of giving offence;
some groups believe that the phenomenon of globalisation has reduced cultural diversity and so reduced the opportunity for misunderstandings, but characterising people as a homogeneous market is simplistic. One product or brand only appeals to the material aspirations of one self-selecting ***** of buyers, and its sales performance will not affect the vast multiplicity of factors that may separate the cultures.
.........
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