Intercultural Communication

Service Learning Paper

Submitted by:
Sonia Gutierrez
April 30, 2016

Submitted to:
Tamara K. Phillips, M.S.
COMM 2150-002
Department of Communication
Salt Lake Community College

Community Partner
I volunteered at the English as a Second Language classroom at Salt Lake Community
College for my service learning project. This is the contact information:
Andy Shaw
ESL Instructor
English as a Second Language Classes
Salt Lake Community College
Redwood Campus
TB 123 & 125
Email: andrewshaw@slcc.edu

Project
When I spoke with Andy Shaw, an instructor and my supervisor, I learned that the
purpose of the ESL program at Salt Lake Community was to teach the students the English skills
necessary for them to succeed and that the goal was to be able to teach the students to speak
more fluently and recognize when a sentence sounds correct. At that point the students can
automatically correct themselves and improve their skills. I know there were a few instructors in
the program at the Taylorville campus but I only worked with Andy. He would teach grammar in
the mornings and at noon would help the students practice their conversation skills in small
groups.
While serving in the ESL classroom, I would normally go during the conversational
English portion of the class, from 12-1pm, and help the students improve their speaking skills. I
was usually assigned a group, ranging from three to seven students, and help keep them talking
by providing questions and feedback. I went to a 9-11am class once and I helped two students
make sure they were understanding the reading and grammar and corrected their spelling. I also

tutored Nor, a student from Saudi Arabia, for two hours one day and helped him prepare for a
reading and comprehension exam that he would be taking the next day.

Culture Group
I worked with many different culture groups while volunteering at the ESL classroom.
Andy would try to spread out the students that spoke the same language so that they would have
to practice their English, so my groups were always pretty diverse. The students I worked with
were from all over the world. Some of the students I met were Patricia from Columbia, Toto
from the Congo, Shabana and Miriam from Afghanistan, Jose from Mexico. Other students
included Faris, Nor and Hussein from Saudi Arabia, Simon from Bolivia, Yongu from South
Korea, Malik from France, Homa from Pakistan, Maan from Burma and many more. Most of the
students had come to the United States as immigrants searching for a better life but many also
came as involuntary refugees seeking to escape from war in their home countries.

Challenges
Some of the challenges I faced while volunteering were understanding the accents of
some of the students and trying to understand what the students were meaning to say. A couple of
the students I spoke with were pretty fluent but their accents made it hard to understand a lot of
what they were saying. I would try to deal with that by listening for key words to get the gist and
many times the other students in my group would understand what the student was trying to say
and explain it to me. Other times the students would begin describing something or answer a
question but halfway through the sentence they would not be able to come up with words to
finish it. When this happened I would try to give them suggestions, but it was hard because a lot

of the time I had trouble understanding the first part of the sentence. Some of the students would
also speak with the English that they knew and would use the wrong words or put the words in
the wrong order so I would have to unscramble their sentences to understand. If the students
made a mistake I would correct them nicely and repeat it if some of the students needed
clarification.

Theory
The theory I chose to focus on for my service learning project is General Systems Theory
developed by Paul Watzlawick. This theory is described by a belief that views human behavior
as the result of a series of factors that mutually influence one another (Phillips, 2016, p.41).
Systems Theory analyses systems in life or a set of interconnected elements in which a change
in one element affects all of the other elements (Phillips, 2016, p. 42). There are six
assumptions of the theory:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Non-Summativity
Interdependence
Hierarchy
Boundaries
Calibration and Feedback
Equifinality

Non-Summativity is the idea that a system cannot be understood by looking only at its
individual parts separate from each other. To be fully understood, one must look at the system as
a whole. Interdependence describes the fact that each of the different elements of a system are
connected and dependent on each other. This means that if one of the individual parts of a system
is affected, the entire system is affected. The assumption of hierarchy within the theory states
that systems contain subsystems that belong to and are imbedded in supra-systems. Basically,
there are levels within a system, some higher than others, but all are important.

The assumption of boundaries states that systems have created borders around themselves
with variable degrees of permeability that control what comes in or goes out. Some borders
around a system or around the individual parts may be more permeable than the borders around
others. Calibration and Feedback deals with the idea that systems check their level of stability
and act to maintain or change the status quo. Feedback can be negative to maintain the same
level, or positive to create a change. Finally, Equifinality is the idea that different paths of actions
can be taken to lead to the same result or achieve the same goal (Phillips, 2016, p. 42).

Analysis
By viewing my service learning project through the lens of the Systems Theory, I can
recognize many of the different aspects that can be applied to my experience. One way of
looking at how Non-Summativity applies to my experience is by realizing that the class was a
mixture of people from many different culture and languages, all in one room. I couldnt
understand or judge the level of English mastery in the whole class by speaking to just one
student. Each student had a different level of English, some more than others, but in order to help
all of the students improve their English I had to look at the overall level of the class or else I
would never be able to advance.
There is also a hierarchy within the classroom. A lot of the time, the students that spoke
the same language would form their own groups. These smaller groups would make up the
subsystems of the class which was a supra-system. The class, though, could still be seen as a
subsystem of a larger supra-system that is the ESL program at the Taylorville SLCC campus
which is a subsystem of the entire ESL department of all the campuses of Salt Lake Community
College.

Boundaries can be observed within the classroom. Any student is welcome into the class,
so the supra-system is open; but, the subsystems are semi-open. The students are all friendly but
to truly fit into any one group I had to understand the culture and the language. In my experience,
I couldnt truly be part of the group of students from the Middle East or Asia because of the
language barrier but I could become part of the Latin American subsystem because I spoke
Spanish and I was raised in a similar culture to the students in the group.
I observed calibration in the classroom whenever Andy would test the students or have
them practice speaking English. This was how he gauged where each of the students were. Then
he would provide feedback depending on the results. If a student didnt do very well Andy or the
volunteers and I would provide negative feedback by correcting the student and help him/her
understand a concept to help them keep up with the classrooms level. The purpose of the ESL
class is to teach the students English in order to succeed in the US, but everyone learns in the
own way. Equifinality can thus be observed by the different ways that the students practiced to
reach the same end goal of learning English. Some of the students might have learned more by
reading or writing, others by speaking or listening. The different teaching styles of professors can
also be an example with some instructors focusing on teaching grammar and the basics and
others focusing on jumping in and practicing English, but again, all with the same goal of
teaching English.

Reflection
I was a little apprehensive about volunteering at the ESL class at first because I had little
to no experience teaching and tutoring. I thought that I mightve had to give English grammar
lessons to the students and I wasnt completely sure about how I was going to do that. I was

looking forward to speaking to people from other cultures though. I had a desire to learn how to
connect with people from all over the world without accidentally insulting them.
After this experience, I realize that there was no need to have been worried. Andy
provided the leadership and guidance that I needed and I had fun the entire time. Some of the
conversations I had with the students were very interesting and personal, I was glad to be able to
have had those conversations in an environment where we could voice our differences without
getting mad.
I really enjoyed my time in the ESL classroom with all of the students and have thought
about continuing to volunteer in the ESL program whenever I have time. I was glad I was able to
help improve some of the students English while I learned about the culture of many of the
students, such as the differences in the education systems, jobs, and lifestyles. I learned to keep
my mind more open and reinforced my belief that no culture is superior but that they each have
their differences and they all have something to contribute.

References
Phillips, T. K. (2016). Intercultural Communication Course Packet.