10/28/19 Week 7 Response to Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom

Hey everyone! I really hope you are enjoying the posts I have and continue to read them! I am sharing my thoughts about the information I am studying in my TESOL class. It is very interesting and I hope that while you read, you learn something new!

Cross-Cultural Students in the Classroom

Throughout the world, it is very popular that students attend a type of schooling or education. In many places, there are different social norms of what is respectful and what is crossing the line. Teachers have to understand the differences that may occur within their own classrooms since they will have many different cultures in their classroom.

In Asia, Japan, and South America the children in school show a different way of respect. The people in Europe will have such a high respect for their teachers that they won't look them in the eye. It is their way of showing them the highest amount of respect they can.

However, in the United States, that is almost a form of disrespect. Teachers expect their students to look them in eye so that they can tell they are really listening. See the difference?

With all that being said, I want you to take a look at the picture above. ↑

There are 5 students in this picture and it demonstrates a wide variety of how responses can be in a classroom. As you can interpret, some students can respond very energetically.

Other students respond at a low energetic level. But, this doesn't mean that one student is showing more respect than the other in their mind. The students (from both energy levels) are showing a great amount of respect in their own eyes.

This is seen in many parts of the world and even in a normal classroom setting. The picture above helps demonstrate the reality of how different cultures can be in the classroom. When another student from another country is joined in the class, they bring many things to the table. These can be good things and bad things! It just depends on the culture.

As a teacher, the understanding that you should have about cross-cultured students in the classroom is important. Since they might have a different way to communicate or show respect it helps YOU (the teacher) adapt and then achieve greater success in the classroom.

In conclusion, I think one idea that a teacher can implement to create a culturally balanced classroom are some class rules! That will help organize the classroom and keep an order so anybody is able to understand how to follow the rules can be on the same page. This can also reduce behavioral issues due to cross-cultural students in the classroom.



Thanks everyone for reading!