Intercultural communication in language class of culturally diverse students - Essay Example

Intercultural communication in language of culturally diverse Interculturalcommunication in language class of culturally diverse students Introduction Intercultural communication is an interaction of individuals influenced by different cultural communities. The constituents of the culture determine the nature of the interaction and communication among the participants. The due to lack of skill and awareness about inter-cultural communication it may result into cultural conflicts. Moreover in classroom settings, management of such conflicts can become a challenge for the teachers. Therefore, a lot of research has been conducted that resulted in the theoretical underpinning of ways in which teachers can manage to impart English language courses. The aim of this paper is to present two case studies identifying two major issues that come in the management of inter-cultural learning for students (World Bank, 2010). The study will be focused on the barriers among students of various cultural backgrounds. It will also elaborate how these students as learners of English as Secondary Language (ESL) respond to the difficulties? The study is comprised of two case studies and will incorporate the case scenario, its discussion and critical evaluation for each case study and will conclude with a formal conclusion. Case Study 1: Teaching culture or Intercultural Competence (IC) in language classes. To do or not to do, especially in contexts where not all staff believe in it Case Scenario: In the English language class one third of my students were from China including Zhang Li, and the rest were mixed of various nations. In learning English language class, the Chinese students were tend to be shy, introvert and reserved. They were poor in communication other students and with instructors and not very often participate in the class discussions. All members of the Chinese group including Zhang Li used to live, study and play together. Their attitude showed a fear and hesitation in self-expression. They were very conscious of using English as a medium of interaction. They tend to ignore the cultural aspects of the language and often confused while using phrases and explaining contexts. Moreover, all the Chinese and in particular Zhang Li, felt chauvinistic about their own Chinese culture and were obsessed with fear of interacting with foreign culture. While in English language class their belief on ethnocentrism held them back from developing cultural relations with the American culture and language. Zhang Li was ambiguous about the social and cultural aspects of phrases and its implications. In his learning they found little help to understand the cultural implications of words and sentences of English. Zhang Li was not aware of the culture of which English is an essential part. The Zhang Li felt the stress in form of inferiority complex and wide cultural gap. Although these students learnt English words and sentences, they failed to understand cultural implication of these words and sentences. Zhang Li along with his colleagues were obsessed with pre-set idea about American culture and language. The prejudice and pre-judgment dominated the interaction of American as well as Chinese students. Such interaction often caused cultural conflict among the students and barred free interaction of ideas. The existing gaps also lead to less understanding of each other cultures and cultural expectations; sometime, creating confusion in interacting with the class. Chinese students were scared of being exposed to foreign student who are culturally so different. Zhang Li felt that American students are very intelligent, open, and superior to him. The situation faced by Zhang Li and other Chinese students was frustrating and embarrassing. The American and the Chinese students failed to understand each other. They struggled in acquiring knowledge, developing positive attitude, toleration of differences, and in their behaviour. Theoretical background The concept of intercultural competence (IC) introduced in early 90s has emerged as guiding principle for language education. Meyer (1991, 137) defined Intercultural competence as “the ability of a person to behave adequately in a flexible manner when confronted with actions, attitudes and expectations of representatives of foreign cultures”(Meyer, 1991, p. 137). Byram (1997, 41-42) later, explained that communication between people not only involves exchange of information but also the capacity of taking the perception of other people about their own culture. Intercultural competence (IC) also implies the capability to depict one’s own cultural identity and values and is vital in raising knowledge of complicated interactions of language, society and cultural meanings (Byram, 1997). Thus, Teaching culture or Intercultural Competence (IC) is aimed to familiar the learners with the cultures and make interaction easy through necessary information and providing them with sociolinguistic skills as well as open-mindness and respect, to defy stereotypes and biased opinions about other culture. Although development of communicative competence in students is considered as an important aim of foreign and second language teaching (Beltrán-Palanques, 2014) but language teaching and particularly second language teaching is linguistically and culturally an arduous task. Bennett’s model considers self-awareness and transformation as the primary need for the process of intercultural competence. Bennett (1993) put stress on ‘ethnorelativism’ from ‘ethnocentrism’ by forwarding his ‘Developmental Model of ‘Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS). He further elaborated that the attitude of seeking cultural difference instead of avoiding cultural difference is pertinent for becoming intercultural competent (Bennett, 1993). Byram (1997) proposed another model called ‘Multidimensional Model of Intercultural Competence’ that put stress on attitude as the first condition for intercultural competence. Furthermore, he argued that openness and curiosity are the key traits for learning new beliefs, values, and global perspective while participating in intercultural relationships. Byram along with some others suggested that in an environment where interaction with foreign culture, it is more important that students consider their own perspective by collecting their ideas about that foreign culture before practical interaction (Byram, 1997). In communication context of the theory, the theory states that People keeps different but overlapping identities in a single cultural group, but varies with respect to salience and intensity and The expression and experience of single cultural identity can be carried out in many ways The theory stresses on two aspects including salience or the importance of one identity in relation to others and the intensity or the level of the expression the identity (Jung & Hecht, 2004). The communication theory of identity further elaborate that identity is based on three postulates, which explain how identities are created and communicated. First, people have many identities simultaneously that can overlap and even contradict with each other; secondly, identities are not static or fixed but fluid and can be changed or moulded; third postulates proposes emerging identities (Wahl & Scholl, 2014). The theory further determines two types of group identity. 1. Ascribed identity; is the identity rendered by others to an individual or group due to their role description. Ascribed identity includes physique of the individual, ethnic connotations and other stereotypical attributes. 2. Avowed identity; is the affiliation of a group which it feel most intensely. Both these factors are necessary in comprehending intercultural communication. People make communication based on ascribed identity and any dissociation of ascribed and avowed identity can be frustration for the both the parties (World Bank, 2010). Discussion and Critical Evaluation of the Case Study: Many studies suggest that teaching area of language of a particular culture should be extended to include some aspects of culture and history in a harmonious and interconnected manner. For that purpose Byram introduced the word ‘teachers of the language and culture’. Other scholars are also of the view that teacher education should comprise of attitudes, skills, and knowledge personally, academically and pedagogically. Personally, in the sense that teacher should adopt the attitude which the teacher is intended to inculcate in his students, like open-mindedness and respect for others. The skills include knowledge blocks, mindfulness and communication skills. According to Ting-Toomey there are various attributes in trans-cultural competence and they are as follows. Tolerance for ambiguity; To meet new situations with mindfulness Open-mindedness; to respond without prejudices and biasness Flexibility; to shift frame of reference Respectfulness; to show respect to others and their opinions Adaptability; the skill of adaptation to a particular environment or situation Sensitivity; to be emphatic to others Creativity; to develop and express divergent thinking In spite of the benefits described above, IC focuses very little on the outcome of the activity, also little attention is paid on the context in which communication is conducted. Linguists and language instructors consider cultural competence an important component of the language learning system. Cultural competence represents that ability of the teacher or the instructor to have knowledge about the faith, belief, conventions and custom of another society. Many scholars are of the view that cultural acquaintance must be an integral part of the foreign language curriculum. It is generally acknowledged that language teaching implies not only the skills in language structure and syntax and grammar but it also involves correct uses of language in those particular cultural settings. The aim of this concept is to assist language learners to interact with the instructor on equal terms and to realize the identities of the foreign language and culture. Learner of foreign language under this theory tends to become ‘intercultural speakers’. Intercultural speakers are a concept that will not only communicate information across the language barrier but also builds people to people contact and awareness about society and culture. This approach has led to inclusion of intercultural awareness (IA) into communicative language teaching (CLT). Approach of Intercultural communication leads to tolerance, open-mindness, acceptance, respect and better understanding. Intercultural communication indicates communication between individuals of different socio-cultural backgrounds. Ting-Toomey defined it as “symbolic exchange processes whereby individuals from two (or more) different cultural communities negotiate shared meaning in an interactive situation”(Ting-Toomey, 1999, p. 16). The members of the community into a comprehendible form further explain the concept as symbolic exchange process means coding and decoding of verbal and nonverbal messages. The explanation focuses on the differences of culture and diversity and their impact on the language, particularly its communication. Often foreign language learners come across situations where they face cultural hardships and hindrances while communicating with each other. In such case, confusion and complexities exists among parties in interactions, which may result in cultural conflicts and communication breakdown. Most of the time, the differences in traditions, and way of life, social norms and values, religious rituals and philosophy among other social cultural factor also affected. In order to cater this, it is deemed necessary to teach foreign language programs so that learner can be acquainted with the culture, norms and values along with the language. Therefore, IC is considered utmost necessary in foreign language learning and teaching when the aim is develop communicative competence in the learner. Intercultural communication is of extremely important in particularly language class, where the students belong to various communities. The foreign language learning and the cultural variety within the students are the two important issues for a teacher to teach a language. The foreign language learning is therefore, accompanied with intercultural communication to raise awareness and knowledge about the foreign language as well as culture. Cross-cultural education is focused on making the students attentive and responsible and an active member of their society (Banks, 2002). It is important to inculcate students with respect and unbiased attitude in the behaviour. This creates an environment for openness, forbearance, acceptance and tolerance towards other cultures and removes prejudices. These factors determine the success of cross-cultural learners including the learning atmosphere and attitudes of diversity, inclusive participation, and culturally responsive curriculum. However, the personal attributes and characteristics of students and relationship between teachers and students are the most important factor in a multi-cultural learning atmosphere. The teacher-student relationship is considered as core relationship for learning and encompasses the roles of teaching and students, the learning topic, and interaction between all of them. Culturally varied class can be managed through certain attitudes and strategies which teacher can effectively implement to enable them to develop stronger relationship with their culturally diverse students. These strategies depict standard practices of good teaching (Futrell, Gomez, & Dedden, 2003). Most of the language instructors focus on entirely on the linguistic competence which ignoring other important competences like pragmatic competence, discourse and strategic competence. The idea remains that learning language only involves learner’s linguistic competence, which can be developed through various tasks. The misconstrued idea behind such discourse is the perception that language can be learned through learning and using linguistic features in complete isolation i.e., with no reference to its cultural context (Beltrán-Palanques, 2014). The differences and similarities among students of culturally diverse students should be appreciated and encouraged. Their diversity in personal attributes and cultural differences must be acknowledged and present them in a positive manner. Such environment is the basis for effective communication and efficient educational strategies. The social skills like respect and forbearance must be inculcated and continually reinforced to maintain an inclusive environment (Larzén-Östermark, 2009). Studies have revealed that students of marginalized and prejudiced approach will be more satisfied and self-confident when they are in constant interaction with the teacher. Lack of interactive student-teacher relationship leads to little understanding of the each other and the overall environment suffers. Better relationships are required to have better understanding of culturally varied persons and to make the instruction relevant to their intellectuality and socio-cultural values. The instructor must be aware of the cultural pretext of the learning of the student belonging to different culture. The cultural factor in learning process is important to make learning more easy and manageable. Many students of a particular culture are accustomed to take time for some tasks, or can perform learn in a particular way of teaching, for these students the instructor must provide flexible environment for those student. Flexibility in teaching process makes the learners easy to adjust themselves in the process (Price, Kallam, & Love, 2013). There are many strategies or models which can be employed in a culturally diverse class that will give the learners the opportunities of learning which are coherent with their own styles of communication, attitude and intellect. The variations in the strategies enable the students to develop and cement other methods of learning (Joy & Poonamallee, 2013). While developing strategies, great care must be taken to avoid any prejudice and stereotypes against any culture. The biased approaches must be avoided in appearance, race, sex, gender, physical disability, religious or ethnic background, socio-economic status or abilities. In order to have efficient and successful learning, all students of every culture and background must have participation in the process. Prejudices and stereotypes can hamper students to fully participate in class activities and should avoid marginalization of communities. The students should be aware of classroom rules about participation, conversation, and activities within classroom. Personal relationships encourages student to realize and follow the rules. Since other staff members will have similar problems in their class they will be aware of the students’ attitude and academic performance. Better communication between the staff and between students and teachers may lead to better understanding of each other view. This may results into development of consensus and logical conclusion of importance of Inter-cultural communication. Similarly, good communication and better relationship built between the teacher and the students, invites responses from the students. In is imperative to take all the responses in a positive and constructive mind. The instructor must acknowledge and give positive comments on responses from the students. Better communication also defines every detail of the tasks required in order to complete that tasks, to help the student to be successful in completion of their tasks. Such lacks also affects the existing gap of understanding among the teachers themselves and between the teachers and the students may lead to marginalization of individuals belonging to minor culture. The notion is reinforced by the parental attitudes, unfair school policies and the stereotypes projected by media. As proposed by Byram (1997), Zhang Li and other Chinese students perform better when taught in an environment with IC. Also the conflicts among teachers can be resolved by respect, forbearance and acknowledgement through implementation of IC. Studies suggested that better teacher-student relationship and communication, encouragement of participation, acknowledgment of their community, giving respect to the responses from students can used to lift students like Zhang Li up and maintain their effective participation in the education process (Byram 1997). In addition, strategies like involvement of the parent, and proper counselling can serve the best result in a culturally diverse academic environment (Romo, 1998). Intercultural competence is defined as ‘the ability or capacity to communicate effectively in cross-cultural situations and to integrate it appropriately in a variety of cultural contexts (Bennett & Bennett, 2004). This definition elaborates that its aim is to create competency in the learner for cross-cultural communication among people. In a language class where learners had to learn and face a distant language of a distant cultural, this competence is of extreme necessity. In case of Zhang Li and other Chinese students, using inter-cultural competence method the duration was broken in to stages. The first stage was to break the ice between Chinese and American students. They were to compare and contrast the two cultures. In the second stage the students were guided to analysis these difference in detail through meticulous study, collecting information and also by putting personal judgments too. In the third stage, students were allowed to discuss and debate about their observations and in the last stage they were guided for further information on culture and assess their previous judgments. Chinese student including Zhang Li found intercultural communication helpful for better interaction and understanding of each other (Byram . The responses showed that culture-based activities also taught students how to collaborate and learn in culturally varied groups. Conflicts of norms, cultures, and values arise when learners of foreign language learners is unaware about the foreign culture and society. Learners find themselves in deep trouble when such situations arise due to differences in cultural concepts. Therefore, Intercultural competence is important in language classes to give the students detailed orientation about not only ‘what to use’, but also ‘when to use’ of language. In a setting where staff does not believe in Intercultural competence, the students find it difficult to communicate ideas among people. IC plays an important role in language learning due to fact that the goal of learning a language has shift to encourage students to communicate their ideas and culture with the speakers of various cultural backgrounds. It is necessary if the goal is set to achieve communicative competence in the students. Case Study 2: How to manage language classes where the students come from varied cultural backgrounds Case Scenario: As a member of faculty of English language programme at the language and culture institute in the United States, I have to tackle and manage many students to adjust within the classroom setting. The diversity in the institution has been one of the major issues to manage events. The differences in cultural and recreational activities of different people at the institution created complications for smooth running of the system (that in return requires proper management by the educationists). In my class nearly half of the students were belonging to African American community. Julie a female African American of 19 years was one of the students. Julie was very genius but poor in communication. She often complained of mal-adjustment in class and uncomforting environment due to her cultural variation with that of majority culture. Such maladjustment in the class required me to practically implicate managerial skills or undertake classroom management for English language. Apart from this, attitude also proved to be the conflict when it comes to class management for me when they showed explicit aggressive behaviour and their low socio-cultural background. Other reasons being pre-occupied and widely held belief of the African American community and Julie as a part of it, about whites as exploiters. Such prejudices hindered free flow of ideas and information as well as cultural interactions leading to isolating Julie and other African American students from rest of the classmates in my class. Julie tends to be more introverted and reserved and was reluctant to interact with other students as well as with the teacher. Also, due to diversity in the organization, the skills of effective management became imperative. Therefore, the issue of multi-cultural identity and its management is becoming an emerging issue with time. In managing class, development of relationship is important which can remove anxieties present in initial stages of communication between cultures. Gudykunst (1993) proposed ‘Anxiety/ Uncertainty Management (AUM) Model’ and showed that individuals seeking adjustment in a new ambience are required to learn to ‘successfully manage their anxiety in a new cultural environments’. He further posited that in interactions between varieties of cultures when tension is too high, it is less likely to interpret response from the host. However, when anxiety is at low, the visitors interact with the hosts without much understanding of the hosts’ culture. It maintains the gaps between the individuals of the interacting culture and learning in their interaction does not render any change in beliefs about foreign culture. This model is usually used to train individuals planning to foreign countries. This model amalgamates learning and role-play giving insight to individuals in order to reduce and control anxieties in communication (Gudykunst, 1993). Ting-Toomey (1999) suggested that there is always more than one language involved and individuals from a vast variety of culture are to deal with who vary in their nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, sex, social, and cultural history. These factors complicate the situation and pose a big challenge for the instructor. With the advancement in methodology, modern teachers are mere mediators among various cultures as social dynamic not fixed and static (Ting-Toomey, 1999). Difference in school culture resulted also creates confusion and contradictions among students about the norms and values of the school and Julie was one experiencing such contradictions in cultural norms. As a result, the management of the class becomes more complicated and perplexed. For example, cheating in Asian and African culture is more approvable as compared to western cultures. There were prejudices against various sports and particularly women participation. Another common issue was the lack of understanding of students of various cultures about the norms and values observed in classes in the U.S. Most importantly Asian and African students were observed to lack in making effective communication during classes, which lead to limited learning. Studies put emphasis on teacher training to improve their management skill to manage a culturally varied class effectively. The training must focused on removing hurdles in communication and conflict settlement. The study indicated lacking of these abilities in teachers, who often reacts to the students’ response ineffectively or inappropriately. The study further evaluates that such behaviour make student unable to follow rules (Schwartz, 2007). Intercultural communication enables all the learners in a class to stand on a single point and make understanding of language as an integrated part of a culture. Discussion and Critical Evaluation of the Case Study: In a classroom setting there are various representatives of different cultures with their own norms and values seeking a new language and culture. Their social and cultural background may affect their perceptions or may carry any prejudice about any foreign culture and language. Difference also may occur in the concepts and ideas. Take the example of ideas of a person. In Western culture is assumed that ideas can be owned, in contrast to this various cultures do not agree with it. This difference creates confusion about originality and ownership of ideas, as result clashes occur in the concept of plagiarism. Julie was experiencing such differences and was unable to cope with it. Similar was the case with all other students of African American origin in the class. Considering the Julie’s case, I observed many cultural differences in between students, which could have effected proper management of classes as well as output from the students. It was found that in some culture there is emphasis is placed on mutual help among the students rather than encouraging competition. While learning some foreign language it is necessary to understand the foreign culture. Students do not understand the extent to which sharing or cooperation is acceptable and approvable. The confusion may be evident when students confused in seeking help in home-exam just like homework. Similarly in case of Julie students belonging to some cultural where group solidarity or group relationship is strongly emphasized over principles and rules consider turning in a more heinous ethical act than the cheating in the exam. In many Western countries and particularly the U.S., the act of copying correct answer is perceived as cheating. It might not be deemed as bad in many cultures where copying answers is merely considered as an attempt to do well, even in some cultures it is appreciated for peer cooperation and help. Western culture wants from student that instead of copying the answer, one must go for the learning from the source to enhance understanding about the topic. However, Julie’s culture allows cheating to certain limit if the exam is too difficult, while other culture any such act is considered as cheating and is strongly discouraged. Therefore, the concept of cheating prevailing in Julie’s culture differs with the same concept of cheating in another culture. These cultural differences inside a class must be handled appropriately through Intercultural communication. With the cultural differences, the severity and harshness of the punishment on such actions vary. Some countries employ heavy and harsh punishments while some others have very genial ones. Inappropriate communication and non-acquaintance with the foreign culture may put a student in a baffling situation when such situation arises. Foreign language learners like Julie might lack the proficiency to express the textual ideas into their own words. The language barriers also put them in trouble in usage of common phrases or idioms and to conceive the scholarly ideas behind the ordinary words. In a learning environment it is necessary to understand the nature of interaction of minority and majority culture. Studies revealed that there is no support for assumptions like minority cultural groups are oriented towards their own culture and that the majority culture gives advantage to its member in their academic career. The understanding of relationship between various cultures demands adequate information about minority cultural traditions. It means that to understand the cultural differences between two cultures requires experiencing them not only in formal setting of classroom but outside of formal educational settings (Jung & Hecht, 2004). The better understanding of teacher and the student will wrap up the gap between to two. It will help better understanding of discomforts of Julie in learning a foreign culture in a class dominated by foreign culture students. A study by Jacobs and Reyhner (2002) showed that families of American Indian and Alaskan Native were reluctant to integrate their children into school culture. The attitude invokes confusion and apathy in students towards school. In some cases, they developed oppositional identities. The study recommended that school must integrate and assimilate such student’s culture. It was proposed that the teacher should interact with Native American students with constructivist and positive approach. The approach must be cantered on the culture and their community in order to give student opportunities to participate actively in their education (Jacobs, 2002). Peña (1997) proposes that there should be continuity in the academic policies of an educational institution in promoting minority culture and support achievement. Inclusion of minorities in learning process will result into better communication between the instructor and the students and also better interaction among the students themselves (Peña, 1997). However, complete internalization in a culture in formal or informal environment does not ensure the neutrality of an individual i.e., the individual will minimize his personal like or dislike, and preferences (prejudices) about a culture. This area is still open for future research (Peña, 1997). The study further reported that teachers are required to be adequately trained and skilful in managing a culturally diverse classroom. Adequate training of the teachers about class management and intercultural competence can remove maladjustment of Julie as a representative of a minority culture and can make her a successful learner of the language and culture. The study also depicted that the high-achievers considered their cultural traditions as barriers to their academic achievements. Those who valued their culture more were found to be repugnant to learning. It is of utmost important to gain understanding of how to promote self-concept, acceptance, openness and backgrounds in school and how to do it outside of academic setting. That is, the student must be enabled to know for educational environment and informal settings and also comprehend the way they should response to it. This requires a cordial and close relationship between students and the instructor (Peña, 1997). Gudykunst (1993) Model proposes that manage anxieities for new systems and environment. Its application with the staff as well as students can manage the conflicts and reduce their anxieties to minimum. The study indicated three areas, which are important in management of culturally diverse environment, include the subject matter of cross-cultural management, the diversity in backgrounds of the students or learners, the role of instructor (Szkudlarek, Mcnett, Romani, & Lane, 2013). These three areas are correlated with Aristotelian rhetoric of triad and therefore, taken into account for effective constructive communication. These three areas are identified to improve communication and interaction to create better environment for students like Julie to learn indiscriminately. Conclusion These case studies show that inter-cultural competence is essential ingredient for better understanding of the language as well as its cultural implications. The study show that teachers are needed to be skilful in maintaining discipline and disproportionality in the class in order to avoid drop out of students of minority culture (Wahl & Scholl, 2014). Proper communication coupled with inter-cultural competence and better management of class having marginalized communities can nib the issue in the bud. Proper communication can increase the adaptability of students in the existing environment resulting in the better performance in the output of the student. The instructional and environmental factors of the classroom are also important to assess the behaviour of the students. The environment of the classroom must be oriented in a way that the learners does not feel shy or face hindrance in their adjustment. The students must realize the demands of the environment and should try better adjustment with the rules. The cultural differences inside classroom can create gap in the thought of both students and the teachers. Therefore, as the case studies shows, intercultural competence is an important tool in learning particularly for language learning students. However, the question of ‘how will Intercultural competence be introduced as a mandatory part of language learning’ is open to debate and need detail study. 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