Teach English in CaijiAgang Jiedao - Chongqing

Cultural sensitivityIt is very important to be aware of the different cultures represented in your classroom. Much research should be done on each culture before you start teaching. Many aspects of your personal teaching style, approach, and pace as well as classroom management may need to be changed depending on what backgrounds your students come from. If your students all come from the same country or area, you will probably have less difficulty in using their culture to your advantage and with some study, you may find unique ways to motivate and reward them. If your classroom is multi-cultural, it may get very complicated. Different cultures handle instruction, criticism, individual work, and rewards very differently. It is very detrimental to your purposes as a teacher to unknowingly belittle a student because you are ignorant of his culture. In many Asian cultures, the ?face? system is a thing that you will have to be very informed and careful about. With just a few words, you could humiliate your student, making him feel or look like a failure and killing his motivation. Some of the things that you will have to be cautious about are assignments and instructional correction. You should be even more concerned than usual about making the assignments manageable for the student?s level. If your student can?t complete the work, he will lose face. It may be necessary with these students to arrange time to give helpful criticism privately so that they aren?t being corrected in front of each other. Something that will need attention in teaching most cultures is proper respect for your students? rank, status, and age. Even if you are ?below? them, you must still act in whatever way helps grow their language ability, but you must be aware and use the proper titles, etc. Never intentionally show disrespect to any student. This undermines your authority and may lead to severe management issues. If you are teaching Mexican students, you will need to remember the importance placed upon manners and personal appearance. If you are sloppy or unprofessional in the eyes of your students, it will be much harder to earn their respect and attention. students are often sensitive to things that you may not even think about. Get into the habit of looking at a situation from different points of view and you will be less likely to hurt or anger your students. Another aspect of sensitivity is attention to holidays. If you are teaching in the native country of your students, they will likely have the day off from class. However, if you are teaching a class in an English-speaking country, your students may be sitting in class on a day that they would prefer to be celebrating. This provides a great opportunity to make personal connections. Make the class a fun, up-beat time. You might want to use it mainly for review and free talk-time. Let the students share memories, traditions, and stories about the holiday with the class. There are so many things to think about when teaching foreign cultures. Research is key. Find out the cultures that you are dealing with and get as much information as you can. Different peoples are used to different teaching methods, structure, and goals. You don?t necessarily have to change the way you teach to match the students? cultures, but if you know where they are coming from, you will know better how to make yourself understood and understand their difficulties.