Companies Worldwide TESOL

Cultural Sensitivity in the ClassroomJosé Pablo is playing a communication game with some of his classmates and his teacher notices he often interrupts. She watches this happen a few times and gently reminds him to wait his turn before speaking. This problem continues for several more minutes and soon other children follow suit, and the communication game has gone out of control. What seems like unorganized chaos to the teacher – the children interrupting, not waiting their turn to talk and violating what may be “American” etiquette rules – could actually be quite normal in José Pablo’s culture. Cultural sensitivity is not something addressed often enough in an educational setting. Teachers are educated about grammatical structures, psychology, lesson planning, and possible arrangements of a classroom – but how can one be taught culture? Before coming to Costa Rica, I did not know about all of the “Tico” customs. Certainly, before teaching at Amerikano Estudios, I did not realize how common it was for people to interrupt each other during conversation. Not only is this normal, but accepted. I started to realize that many times when I was interrupted during conversation, the person was not intending to do it – it was simply something that was normal here. What I considered “etiquette” in my country had nothing to do with “etiquette” here. Who was I to judge? A very interesting article written by two early childhood experts, Janet Gonzalez-Mena and Dora Pulido-Tobiassen, states: “Inevitably, situations arise when we strongly disagree with a family's practice even after we understand its roots. When this happens, it's important to keep in mind that different ways of doing things aren't necessarily bad or harmful in and of themselves.” For example, while I may disagree with the “etiquette of interruption” as a teacher, that does not mean it is bad or harmful, even in an educational setting. Perhaps it is facilitating more conversation and increasing fluency of the students! Gonzalez-Mena and Pulido-Tobiassen’s article highlights another wonderful example about shoes. In one classroom, a mother had come to pick her child up and wondered why her daughter’s shoes were in the storage cubby and not on her feet. The teacher outlined the reasons her daughter, Pia, should go barefoot, such as balance and control of the body and that her feet needed room to grow, as she was just learning to walk. The authors of the article state that the teacher should put herself in the mother, Rose’s, shoes and consider the reasons why she would like to keep the shoes on Pia’s feet. Some of the reasons include that Rose may choose fancy shoes for Pia so she can prove that she can provide for her child; another may be that perhaps people in Rose’s culture think that children with bare feet catch colds, or that Rose could be from a part of the world where parasites are contracted from the feet. There are many, many reasons to consider for a student or parent’s behavior in the classroom and outside of the classroom. There may not be blatant culture differences and some behaviors may require some critical thinking. Cultural diversity is something to be emphasized and taught in every classroom, whether monolingual or multilingual. Although english is the subject, I believe that cultural awareness is a very important topic and should be integrated into every classroom. Bibliography Gonzalez-Mena, Janet, and Dora Pulido-Tobiassen. "Teaching "Diversity": A Place to Begin | Scholastic.com." Teaching Resources, Children's Book Recommendations, and Student Activities | Scholastic.com. Web. 23 June 2011. .