Abstract
This article illustrates techniques that can help instructors overcome the challenges of a much overlooked teaching element—that of using examples while teaching management in a multicultural classroom filled with both domestic and international students. We provide suggestions for steps that instructors can take to improve their content delivery for an international classroom without compromising their current use of pedagogical tools such as examples, storytelling, and active learning exercises.
Teaching international students in a traditional American classroom is challenging. They bring with them not only a diversity of national affiliations but also diversity of culture, history, language, and pedagogical experiences. Many struggle with comprehending accents or even the language used by the instructor, while simultaneously learning to adapt to new laws and dealing with intense feelings of loneliness (Ryland, 1992; Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, & Curran, 2004; Zhou, Jindal-Snape, Topping, & Todman, 2008). However, more and more classrooms are becoming increasingly international (NAFSA, 2011, 2013), thus necessitating a reexamination of strategies that instructors can employ to be more effective in a classroom filled with both domestic and international students.
One of the most commonly used pedagogical tools for most instructors is the use of examples in the classroom (Mantooth, 2010). However, most international students are lost, since the examples, analogies, and metaphors are often culturally derived, and international students cannot necessarily relate to them. For example, while explaining complements and substitutes in an introductory economics course, an instructor used the example of peanut butter and jelly. The instructor explained to a perplexed group of international students that PB and J are complements. According to one of these students,
In our cultures butter and jam (or jellies) are substitutes and are never eaten together and thus international students could only think of them as substitutes not complementary.
Our aim in this article is to help faculty become more aware of potential issues with using examples as a pedagogical tool in the classroom, while simultaneously providing ways to increase their effectiveness in multicultural classrooms. We use our own experiences for this article as well as the results of a focus group we conducted to help us identify some of the issues students may experience in their American classrooms.
Here are some techniques that instructors can use in their classrooms that would help increase their teaching effectiveness with international students in both active learning and lecture environments (excerpts from focus group interview are presented in italics):
Techniques for Improving Instruction
Techniques for All Learning Environments
Most important is the instructor’s willingness to be a participant and a patient mentor for learning, which is helpful and appreciated by international students. Dismissive behavior of professors can be discouraging: Japanese Student: “Whenever, my professor teaches us new material, she sometimes looks at me, and some of the other international students, and asks us how things are done in our country. I am shy, but I like to tell her these stories. She is the first professor whose class I speak in.” Chinese student: “One time I asked a professor, ‘Sorry, could you explain that again?’ He said, ‘That is ok it is an American example, you won’t understand.’” This student expressed that this dismissive behavior discouraged him from ever asking for clarification on another concept.
The easiest way to overcome potential issues in an international classroom is being aware of and avoiding the use of colloquial and culturally rooted idioms and phrases. We are aware that this strategy may sound overly simplistic, but many international students observe and report feeling extremely lost when dealing with the local vernacular. Simply remembering this before each class has proven to be most useful for our own teaching.
Professor talked about falling price of “gasoline,” and we thought natural gas. Many days later a friend told me that gasoline is “petrol.” (Sri Lankan and Indian students) I do not understand the word redneck, but the professor gave an example of a redneck doing business. (Saudi student)
We recognize classroom time is both limited and valuable. Thus, it is acceptable to provide international students tools for improving their understanding that they can work on outside the classroom. Some techniques we use include the following: Providing a reasonable reading list to students with the syllabus and pointing to it as a means of learning and understanding American business and culture (see the appendix). This reading list, we have found, helps students learn the cultural examples that they may have missed. This reading list also familiarizes international students with the diverse historical and cultural backgrounds often used as a foundation for these examples. Providing cultural awareness activities. We have often provided international students with a list of popular American fiction and movies that relate to management or business (see the appendix). They are then asked to watch those movies and discuss them either with their American classmates or to bring the movie synopsis to the classroom. This approach has been found to be helpful for the students, especially in the comprehension of American phrases and idioms, as well as culturally rooted examples. A Chinese student’s feedback after watching a few movies from the movie list we gave to our international students: “I watched both movies, ‘Wall Street’ and the sequel. It is so interesting. I had to do research to understand what the name ‘Wall Street’ implies. I did not know!” Although these American movies and popular media aid in some small ways toward the comprehension of some of the colloquial, it is pertinent to remember that international students, regardless of their level of proficiency in the English language, do still struggle to understand our idiom-filled speech and cultural examples.
Another strategy that helps in international classrooms is duplicating oral instructions via email or through a course website. This is especially helpful for those students who struggle with differences in accent or with limitations in English language proficiency. It also allows students the ability to reread the instructions at their own pace.
Maybe if teacher provides written instructions or write new names on the board that helps because their accents make it hard for us to understand. (Chinese, Saudi, and Sri Lankan students)
One of the most helpful tools available to many international and multilingual students are dictionaries. Allowing students to bring their tablets or electronic dictionaries in order to check concepts and metaphors on the Internet while the instructor is explaining material using stories or other culturally specific examples can be extremely helpful.
One teacher allowed me to take my iPad, and whenever she was talking I would Google a new word or company name and I enjoyed and understood that class so much. (Saudi student)
Techniques for an Active Learning Environment
Poyrazli, Kavanaugh, Baker, and Al-Timimi (2004) found that non-American students who interacted with American students, and/or with both American and non-American students, reported less acculturative stress than did students who interacted only with other non-American students. At the same time, their study also showed how Asian students showed more acculturative stress than did Western European international students, a phenomenon attributed to the similarities between Western European and American cultures, as compared to Asian and American cultures. These two results from the study indicate that interaction between international and domestic American students would be beneficial not only to decrease stress but also to accelerate the acculturative process. Here are a few examples of exercises that can facilitate active learning and help international and American students befriend each other. The goal of these exercises is aiding in their own learning while helping the instructor come up with more international examples for their classroom.
Activity 1: “For Example . . .”
After explaining the content for a new topic, take a pause. Organize your class into small groups of two to three students, taking care that each international student has been paired with at least one domestic student. Ask each group to take 5 minutes and come up with an example that illustrates the concept just covered in the class. If feasible, they should be allowed the use of the Internet. After the commencement of the allotted time, allow each group a further 2 to 3 minutes to explain their examples to the class. However, instead of simply listening to the examples, the audience (the rest of the students) is encouraged to ask any clarification questions from the group that presents the example. This is a simple yet powerful exercise as it not only forces students to think of examples themselves but also pushes them to struggle with the material with an unfamiliar study partner. This exercise also helps teach American and international students to collectively work on a problem, and it forces them to clarify their own thought process before they can explain their example to the audience.
Activity 2: “Why It Wouldn’t . . .”
This activity can be done during an ongoing class lecture. After a concept, such as participative management, has been explained, ask the students to quickly write on a piece of paper, “Why this wouldn’t work . . .” The logic behind this exercise is many students are unable to grasp new management concepts. This problem is compounded by cultural norms and differences. The example we are using of participative management is particularly illuminating. During a class discussion on participative management, two students, one Nigerian and one Vietnamese, both wrote on their pieces of paper they could not see it working since, “A manager is smart and does not need subordinates to tell him how to do his job. I will never tell my boss how to make decision, even if they ask me. They are boss because they know how to.” It is extremely important to extract such ideas from students with diverse backgrounds. Not only does it help the instructor understand where the problem in comprehension is, it also provides specific examples of how cultural norms play out in managerial contexts. The Nigerian and Vietnamese students, both used to hierarchical and high-power distance cultures, could not fathom of participative management as a viable concept. Explaining certain concepts in the context of culture benefits both domestic and international students.
What Students Say . . .
Finally, in an effort to help our colleagues gain a further appreciation of the struggles many international students face in their U.S. classrooms, here are additional excerpts from the focus group interview with international students. The focus group comprised eight student participants who responded to the invitation (out of the 12 who were invited). This group consisted of two Chinese, one Japanese, one Saudi Arabian, one Indian, one Sri Lankan, and two American students. The students were asked to provide anecdotes on personal experiences when they struggled during classroom instruction due to example usage. Their responses are provided and organized according to the themes that emerged spontaneously (verbatim student comments are italicized):
Sports culture:
Japanese students: Football is not popular in Japan. We had to do an assignment on “XX” (name of the college football team) and I did not know what to do. I did not understand the game.
Everyday concepts that might be commonplace in American English but are not so common in English for other cultures. Examples include the following:
“Dry county.” Chinese student: In China you can drink anywhere. I thought it was about milk or if you can raise cows. “I thought it was like dry weather all the time!”
Lack of brand recognition:
The students unanimously commented, “We don’t know what Dr. Pepper is but the professor kept talking about how this company is copying Dr. Pepper’s formula!” Coca Cola and Pepsi are international brands, whereas Dr. Pepper is a more American brand. Walmart example works because we have that in China/Saudi Arabia, but not Chili’s or Hooters.
Funeral practices:
Saudi student: I do not understand what are funeral homes. We had to do an assignment about a business plan for a funeral home, and I did not understand it. We don’t have them in Saudi Arabia. Chinese: I know what funeral homes are, but I did not understand why American people party at a funeral. I mean aren’t you supposed to be sad. So I did not have that in my business plan for that class, and the professor took away points and did not explain why the party/wake thing is important. Indian student: In my culture you do not talk about death, it is a bad sign and so it was a very difficult assignment for me. It scared me.
Conclusion
Our article is an initial and ongoing attempt to look at the struggles international students face due to cultural dissimilarities when stories, metaphors, and examples are used to aid instruction. We hope our examples are both illuminating and helpful. It is our hope that this article will help instructors increase their effectiveness in international classrooms.
Footnotes
Appendix
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.