The culture question

Imagine you are training a group of Omani teachers for a period of two months in the UK. (I realise that the situation I am describing is quite specific, but the implications of culture are something that has to be faced by many teachers. Replace Omani with any nationality that is appropriate for you!) So, how do you go about it? Do you, effectively, create a ‘mini Oman’, and accommodate their culture at every corner? Or do you try to integrate the group into your institution and the community as much as possible, while paying scant attention to their cultural background? You are already perhaps thinking that this is not a clear-cut issue, and that some kind of compromise needs to be found. Indeed, it makes sense to look at the problem in terms of a continuum:

The far left represents the ‘mini Oman’ scenario, while the far right represents cultural integration.

The two extremes

The accommodation approach consists of a number of key features: the course participants are taught and housed in exclusively Omani single-sex groups; the food is Koran-friendly; the trainers dress modestly, taking care not to expose flesh unnecessarily; the participants are guided in their social activities and trips; trainers only use teaching methodology which is used in Omani culture. The integration approach, on the other hand, consists of the following characteristics: the trainers dress as if they were training UK citizens; the participants are encouraged to become independent both in their studies and in their socialising; the trainers make no allowances for cultural expectations in the classroom, and they make no changes to their methodology.  

A compromise  

The above are the two extremes of the accommodation/integration continuum. But let’s now look critically at these two polar opposites.  

Accommodation  

If we look firstly at the accommodation approach, there are a number of advantages. First, you are creating a sense of reassurance and well-being, which could be very conducive to effective learning. Second, the chance to chat in Arabic with each other between lessons would be attractive to many participants. Third, participants would not feel so out on a limb in an alien society – they would enjoy the solidarity of belonging to a conspicuously mono-cultural group. The accommodation approach has its drawbacks, though. The greatest of these is that the participants are, arguably, wasting their time studying in an English-speaking country. Why not, instead, just ship over some native-speaker trainers to Oman? If you keep the Omanis in an Omani bubble, then they won’t learn as much English, and they won’t learn as much about the UK.  

Integration  

Let’s now look at the other extreme – the integration approach. The advantages are these. First, as already implied, the participants will learn more about language and culture. Second, they are likely to have a much richer, and less predictable learning experience. Third, they’ll become more independent learners, and, indeed, more independent people. The disadvantages are as follows. First, the participants may find themselves in a state of considerable shock and anxiety, which would have an adverse effect on learning and the visit in general. Second, they may think that you, the service provider, are unprofessional, inconsiderate and insensitive. Third, they will think that they are not being treated in a special way – and they may well resent this.  

What to do?

So, in the light of the above argument, what kind of service should you offer this group of teachers? I think that if all members of the group have the same objectives, then they should be taught in the same group. This makes obvious pedagogical sense. But as far as the question of independence is concerned, a slightly more complex response is needed. Each member of the group will have a different degree of learner independence and, indeed, personal independence. Some will not want to be independent. Moreover, some of those who do have an interest in British culture will still want clear guidance from the institution they’re studying with. They’ll expect you to act as an intermediary between them and the new alien culture.  

The culture conundrum is a difficult one to solve. Inevitably, you can’t please everybody all the time. Study in monolingual groups clearly has drawbacks, and it is difficult to mitigate these. But, as far as learning about culture is concerned, there can be an element of flexibility in the programme. You can take the group on guided voluntary excursions, but you can also encourage others to integrate into the community in their own way – if that’s what they want to do. Above all, it’s worth discussing the conundrum with your participants in regular, formal, dedicated sessions. That way, they can input their own ideas into the development of the course programme.

Paul Bress is a freelance ELT lecturer, assessor, examiner, writer and reviewer. Amongst other organisations, he works for the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds as well as Trinity College, London, the London Chamber of Commerce and Cambridge University Press.

This article first appeared in English Teaching Professional, Issue 24