Intercultural teaching Jan 2024 by Hochschuldidaktik Sachsen

What challenges have you faced in the past when you think about your daily work with international students? If you have not (yet) worked with international students, what challenges can you imagine? Please add your ideas by pressing the "plus button" in this section

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-08 17:23:03 UTC

2024-01-12 08:08:59 UTC

I had no experience working in the classroom in the last two years with foreign students.

But if I think about the difficulties that I had, the most challenge issue for me is the language. On the one hand, there is not a high degree of confidence in what you say, but jn the other hand there are also difficulties in understanding reasonable questions from students (for examle if they have special accent). Difficulties may also arise in the names of terms, Difficulties may also arise in the names of terms, which is also connected with the peculiarities of translation.

Punctuality

2024-01-12 08:34:11 UTC

I teach and taught students from different countries, mainly from the regions India and surrounding countries, but also some student from South America and European students enrolled in the Erasmus program. The course is embedded in the master “Advanced Manufacturing” and the students have various engineering topic in their bachelors (eg. textile engineering, automotive, aerospace, …) and I teach them the basics about composite materials to reach the same level of knowledge. One of the biggest issues is the punctuality in the practical sessions, where we have little time and really need it. This week, ten students of a group of 16 were half an hour too late, and were not allowed to participate in the session, because we cannot restart after such time. Maybe they are learning it, that sometimes they need to be there on time (I know, sounds very German 😊)

2024-01-12 10:57:12 UTC

I teach English to Philology students at Donbas State Pedagogical University, Ukraine. I've had only Ukrainian students so far, but this academic year we have Chinese students due to the program of Academic mobility. That's why I need some theoretical background to work as a teacher in the intercultural ESL classroom. New experience is always amazing! Great expectations from this course.

For now I haven't experienced too much challenges, more chances for exchange but

2024-01-15 14:21:36 UTC

- sometimes different cultures and communication styles can be a challenge. some students are very achievement-orientated, others not.

- some international students face challenges while adapting to a new social environment. This can affect their academic performance and engagement.

-expectations of students withdiverse backgrounds can be challenging. Students from different cultures might have varying perceptions of success, failure, and academic achievement

2024-01-15 17:08:52 UTC

To be honest, I haven't faced the challenges with international students. But I'm here to get to know about some of them and have the ways how to copy with ones. Now it's the point of my interest because, as you know, there is a war in Ukraine and nobody knows what can happen next. That's why I want to improve my knowledge in this question to be able to have a deal with it in the future.

Our Challenges

irynakorotiaieva — 2024-01-15 17:27:28 UTC

internationalization

2024-01-16 10:08:39 UTC

I teach Romance languages and do not have direct contact with foreign students. However, we are going through a process of internationalization in our Institution (Zittau/Görlitz), and I want to be prepared for this challenge and also gather experiences from those who already work in this field.

What do you think might be the reasons for some student's behavior or responses that we find challenging? For the possible answers and explanations you might want to search for a particular country's culture profile online or use one of the online link below. Please add your ideas by pressing the "plus button" in this section

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-16 14:18:35 UTC

2024-01-16 22:12:48 UTC

I do not know. It is difficult to say. I think that there are other factors besites cultural diversity. As we mentioned last week, I believe generational factors play also a role. I am an older millenial and my students are gen z. This means I am almost twice their age and sometimes it is difficult to find a common ground, even without the language barrier. As I mentioned my students are 99% german but their generation is 100% technology oriented. Which is very positive! The problem is that they dont come to class or to the Übungen and they miss a lot of important things. Especially is a very practical oriented Studium as veterniary medicine. So in my case, I notice the generational factor is also an issue since It is not only something I, as a foreigner, struggle with but also my german colleagues.

Diversity

derkacella — 2024-01-17 11:00:58 UTC

I have been working with International MBA students earlier. I liked our collaboration, discussions. Our lectures were exciting. The only challenge for me was language dialect. I couldn't understand properly students from India.

irynakorotiaieva — 2024-01-18 17:07:42 UTC

There might be various reasons for some student's behaviour or responses that we, teachers, find challenging. First of all, it is, of course, cultural diversity and accent factor; secondly, different learning styles, and, thirdly, previous educational background. We, teachers, may have insufficient awareness of some definite culture, especially cultural differences between oriental and European cultures; modes of behaviour in the educational environment and possible misunderstanding. That's why, we strongly hope that this course will provide us with certain strategies as to how to solve possible problem situations in the university classroom with international students.

as a teacher of the Ukrainian language for international students, I observe that

2024-01-19 06:35:19 UTC

1) not all students answer willingly when it concerns them personally.

2) the manner of presenting the material is also different for different cultures;

3) the comfortable communication distance is also different - you must know about this;

4) attitude to time is also different;

5)the reaction to the teacher's opinion is also different.

The reason may be different attitudes in different cultures to

2024-01-19 06:47:19 UTC

a) authority (teacher, government representative)

b) time in general

c) teaching traditions

d) taboo topics

e) crisis situations

Various reasons

2024-01-19 08:11:09 UTC

There are various reasons. I focused on india as comparison, because it is home country of the vast majority of my stutends.

I think the main differences are coming from the cultural heritage (Asia vs Europe, Caste vs "freedom" [I do not know much about the caste system]) and also the number of people (large communities vs small families).

It was recently brought to my attention that in india, moving your head side to side means yes. And it helps me a lot :)

So finding responses to overcome the challenges is difficult and takes time. It is a step by step process and even more difficult when you just deal with the people from abroad in short terms like in a lecture, were you talk and they listen...

Group 1

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-19 09:09:11 UTC

Group 3

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-19 09:09:28 UTC

Group 2

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-19 09:09:43 UTC

Group 4

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-19 09:10:01 UTC

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-19 09:24:25 UTC

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-19 09:26:05 UTC

Assignment

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-01-19 11:11:30 UTC

Please think of a critical incident from your own experience. (A definition of a critical experience can be found in the commentary below). It could be a situation you have encountered as a teacher, as a colleague, or as a student.

Think about the strategies you are using (or could have used) to deal with the intercultural misunderstanding. Share them in this column by clicking the "plus" button. Write a few sentences describing the situation, possible reasons for the misunderstanding, and the strategy(s) you used.

If you do not have your own critical incident or cannot think of one, use your colleagues' challenges from task/assignment 1 (Our challenges) as inspiration.

Feel free to give "likes" and responses to other participants' comments.

Slides. All thee three sessions

HDS_Zentrum_Leipzig — 2024-02-02 10:17:11 UTC

irynakorotiaieva — 2024-02-02 12:10:30 UTC

I'd like to comment on the case from my colleague's experience. She had a few foreign students in the ESL classroom, one of them was from China. She had a very specific accent of English, that's why it was very difficult to understand her. She felt certain discomfort in the group and was reluctant to cooperate with other students, working in paars or in teams. So, to solve this situation somehow, the teacher herself was her speech partner at first, then gradually she joined one more student and they worked in a group of 3; then two more students, and finally, the Chinese student felt confident and comfortably enough with other classmates. I guess, it is an effective strategy, though I'm not sure that it will prove successful in different educational environments.

Diversity

derkacella — 2024-02-04 19:45:17 UTC

The reason is diversity in culture, traditions, legal rules, religious, time zones etc.

Morality norms may differ as well.

It takes some time to adapt to foreign audience and chose appropriate tools for communicating.

My strategy

derkacella — 2024-02-04 21:04:26 UTC

I misunderstood some foreign students because of their dialects. I asked them to repeat several times and felt myself uncomfortable. I asked them to speak slower, clearer, in different words. Then I decided to use chat for communication as well, to avoid such situations.

Use different channels for communication: chat, reactions, voice questions etc.
Ask students if everything is clear, any questions at the beginning, during class and at the end. Use ppts during lectures.
Keep eye contact with students to monitor reactions, misunderstanding etc.

DDPU has just started working with foreign students, but it has already formed a little experience in organizing this process. In particular, certain difficulties were caused by:

olganaboka911 — 2024-02-05 13:42:36 UTC

- mutual language barrier, especially among the administrative staff of the university;

- the need to develop all educational and methodological content in English in a short period of time;

- teachers' psychological barriers to teaching foreign students (fear, insecurity, etc.).

In my opinion, there can be several reasons that disrupt the course of the educational process of foreign students:

olganaboka911 — 2024-02-05 13:50:28 UTC

- language barrier;

- low level of organization of the educational process;

- intercultural differentiation;

- forms of work and educational technologies unfamiliar to students;

- educational material that is difficult to understand;

- mutual inflexibility;

- time difference and, as a result, insufficient cognitive and communicative activity during classes, etc.

Strategies of intercultural communication can be as follows:

olganaboka911 — 2024-02-05 14:04:19 UTC

- overcoming language barriers;

- mutual knowledge and exchange of intercultural values;

- mutual tolerance;

- taking into account the peculiarities of cultural identification of a foreign student when developing educational content, choosing forms and methods of work.

malvinafairy89 — 2024-02-09 17:52:54 UTC

To be honest, it's hard to say exactly about the reasons. On one hand, there are some problems of difference between cultures, traditions and customs. Other, but not less impotant, is a language barrier and because of that misunderstanding among teachers and students. Also, reasons can be surronded by personality (flexibility, punctuanality, rudeness, shyness, etc.)

My strategies

malvinafairy89 — 2024-02-09 18:33:55 UTC

I've read all my colleagues' challenges and summed up our discussions in the seminars. So I've made such strategies.

1) the language barrier:

not to be shy to ask if something is not clear, even I think, it'd be better to start the lesson with explanations that's OK not to understand anything and say that, support reguests as a varient. Also, use an eye contact to feel the atmosphere in your class.

2) punctuality and other organisation problems:

set the rules, explain them and ask them to follow. Also, even teachers can send all these rules to the student's messengers or emails.

Also, it's important to be polite and patient. Show students that you work in a team and for some result and are ready to support them. But I really believe that such rules must be not just for working with international students, but with all students as well.;)