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Cultural sensitivity in the classroomImagine that one day you leave your homeland. You find yourself in a strange land where people communicate in a language you don?t understand or speak. Instead of being able to return every day to your family and home to eat and sleep, you are now staying in a country awaiting permission to enter that new country. You know that you may or may not return home to your country. What might you be thinking and feeling? Can I survive? Who would I call to be there to help me? How long will it take to learn to speak this new language? Would I be able to go to college if I wanted to? What kind of values, beliefs, and attitudes are there in this new country are they different from your own? How long will it take me to adjust? How will I feel if the holidays I know are not celebrated? What holidays do they celebrate and why? How will I feel in time about adapting or assimilating to this new culture? Obviously, people go to a foreign country for a multitude of different reasons. For some the move may be employment, but it will almost always involve some painful, lonely and difficult moments. Many things that one has taken for granted until now are gone. This is just as true for the children and young people as it is for adults. Teachers need to assess and ask themselves the question about how much do I really know about the experiences of what it takes to learn another language and to adapt to a new culture. How much do I really know about second language acquisition? Is it based on myth or misconception or from my personal experience? Am I open to becoming a learner of new Language or assume that I already know the subject? Can the teacher still become the student? For many schools and teachers, the primary concern is to teach ESL students to communicate in english as quickly as possible. While this may be a matter of necessity, it is important to consider the student as a whole. In our efforts to teach student english, we cannot ignore the value of their native language and culture. As teachers (in a language school) we are always searching for ways to incorporate methods and materials which can aid the acquisition of english for speakers of other languages. As an educator I must recognize that language and the student?s cultural back ground are inseparable. They both contribute not just to the personality of the student, but also to the manner in which the individual interprets reality. Language is one of the most difficult learning processes that anyone will ever go through (whether it?s in the home or in the school). Even the child, whose language and culture matches that of the school, learning language can be a difficult challenge in itself. The child must accommodate what he has learned in the home and apply it to the language and culture of the school. When we recognize that our success in life depends to a high degree on all of our experiences, not just our educational experiences. We realize that we must use the home language and culture of the child as a tool for learning. One of the ways for a teacher or school to become familiar with their students is through the family. Involve the family so that you may have a better understanding of the language and cultural background of the student. (Perhaps using an informal interview with the parents (parents night) will aid you.) Learning a new language and living in an unfamiliar culture can be very demanding and stressful for the family as a whole. Any efforts to ease this transition will ultimately benefit the student.
