22: Comparing Students Cultures

Encouraging students to talk about their cultures is very beneficial, especially when
there are students from different backgrounds in your class. This is because the
students feel that you and the classmates are expressing personal interest in them.
Each student has something slightly different and fascinating to impart. It
demonstrates that the culture of an English speaking country is not being forced on
them but rather presented as just another way of life alongside their own. Here I
suggest how you can make cultural comparisons in the classroom.

Activities for comparing cultures

In this section I present four ways to use the students cultures as a resource for
classroom activities.

* First ask students to individually think about each month of the year and make a
note of what people from their own culture celebrate or commemorate annually.
For example, a Brit would probably note New Years Day, Valentines Day,
Easter and so on. When each person has made notes you put the students in little
groups or pairs to find out a) which events differ across the cultures and b) how
some of the events are celebrated. They should make brief notes about what
their partners say, then you put them in new pairs or groups to report back on
what they learnt from other classmates.
* Think of as many gestures from one English-speaking culture as you can.
Perform the gestures silently in front of the students and ask them to note down
what each one means based on their cultural background. You may use ones like
these:
* Nod your head
* Shake your head
* Make circles with your index finger by your temple ( meaning crazy)
* Hold your nose
* Put your index finger in front of your lips
* Shrug your shoulders
* Beckon
* Press your hands together (like a prayer)
* When you finish all your gestures, get students in pairs to compare ideas about
what each one might mean. Then discuss as a class the meaning you intend and
what people might understand in the other cultures represented. Then ask
students to do the same exercise with a partner showing typical gestures from
their own cultures.

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 Make sure students are aware of any gestures that might cause offence in an
English-speaking culture but not elsewhere. For example, students often
unaware of the difference between a V for victory sign with your palm away
from you you and a ruder two finger sign with your palm facing you.
* Review classroom language with your students such as How do you spell that?
Could you repeat that please? and the vocabulary for the various parts of
speech. To practise these expressions and use the students cultures, each student
prepares to teach the class one interesting word from their own language.
The student teacher has to do a presentation of the word covering pronunciation,
meaning, spelling and usage. Meanwhile the class ask questions in English and
attempt to say the foreign word. As you listen to the students asking questions,
check their grammar and gesture for them to stop and repeat if the classroom
language you reviewed is used incorrectly.
* Present to the class the logos of several globalised companies from the USA or
another English-speaking country and get the students to guess the company and
type of product. You may do this a quiz so teams compete against each other.
After reviewing the answers and declaring the winner, the next stage is to set up
a class discussion about whether these companies are welcomed or resented in
the students hometowns and why.
* Then ask the students to prepare a presentation of a company or product from
their own country which has gone global. Its best to do this as homework so the
class have plenty of time for research.
If students are struggling to come up with a company or product they may speak
about a person from their country who receives international recognition
instead.
For more ideas on using students cultures take a look at ESL Flows
intercultural communication lesson plans at
www.eslflow.com/interculturalcommunication.html