What is intercultural communication? At its foundation, intercultural communication's objectives are to establish and understand how people from different cultures behave, think or do. Once this is appreciated it is then possible to help people overcome intercultural differences and make for a better environment.
Having studied in the local educational system for more than a decade, my learning process had always been done via imitation and observation, to reproduce the right answers when called for. More often than not, disapproval was expected from the tutor when the wrong answer was given. As such, voicing out questions and opinions in class was never encouraged in the education culture.
Even at the university level, Singapore’s education culture is still clearly evident. Many of our university lecturers come from diverse cultural backgrounds and believe in interaction and discussion to facilitate learning. Now recall a scenario in which the lecturer poses a question to the students in the lecture theatre. How many students actually offer to answer?
Time and again, lecturers/tutors end up answering their own questions after periods of awkward silence. Some eventually adapt to the culture and stop posing questions to the students, while others continue trying. Effective intercultural communication can be applied in this scenario. By understanding the local education culture, teachers can try to see the perceptions of the students and organise the lesson in a different manner, stating the expectations of the students. The body language and verbal messages are important in encouraging the students to voice their opinions; instead of rejecting with disapproval, responding positively to an incorrect answer could potentially invite conservative students to open up. Edited 04/10/11
Hi Bernard,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you said about Singapore's education system. We were not trained to speak up in class and participation was quite little in secondary school and junior college. Usually, teachers just deliver what they have to say and we would just absorb all the contents silently in our chairs. You have mentioned quite a good example about how lecturers/professors expect students to speak up and some of the students are still not accustom to it.
This happens in one of my chemistry modules. The professor from abroad always ask questions in lectures and no one will answer. He always end up receiving awkward silences and he just carry on with the lecture. However, you mentioned that some lecturers will stop asking questions, while others keep trying. He is one that adopts the latter, never fail to ask questions in each lecture although he knows it will end up in silence.
Anyway, this is a good example on intercultural communication!
Thanks for the post, Bernard. I appreciate the topic, that of students voicing questions and opinions in class. It seems that you approach it n a rather roundabout fashion though. Your intro on the nature of intercultural relations is comprehensive, but given the nature of the assignment, I wonder if so much is needed. At the same time, you don't give much detail on a specific observation, and that could be considered a weakness in this description. I would have liked more space dedicated to exactly that, your observation. You might have used instances from our class as an example.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple other problems in your language use:
1) Brought up in the local educational system, my learning was taught ... >>> ? (Was your "learning" really brought up and taught?)
2) Now recall a scenario in which the lecturer poses a question to the students in the lecture theatre. How many students actually offered to answer? >>> verb tense consistency?
In any case, thank again for your time and effort.
Thanks for the comment Ailin! I guess this is an issue that most Singaporean students frequently face.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brad for pointing out the errors. Apologies for the sloppiness in the work. Can I edit this post further to focus more on the observation?