Practitioner Inquiry

Abstract:

What do ESL Students Mean When they Say They Want to Learn about American Culture?
How do Some ESL Students Define American Culture?

Susan H. Evans Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council Spring 2001 I am Education Specialist for Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council with responsibilities for the English as a Second Language program. I provide information sessions and assessment and instructional direction for all the ESL students in the program. Students applying to GPLC for ESL instruction range from African refugee farmers to those who are highly educated professionals in their native countries. The students come with a wide range of English language skills, tremendous diversity of home cultures and life experiences. As I reflected upon those differences, I wondered what all these adults meant when they checked off learn about American culture on the Goal Sheet used by GPLC. Could all the students possibly mean the same thing? I created some questions for instructors to ask their students and collected the answers. The questions were designed to clarify how students define culture and to help explain what they really mean when they say they want to learn more about American culture. Another question arose during the research. How do the staff members who provide instruction and support tutors who provide instruction define culture. Are the teachers teaching what the students want to learn or what the teachers think the students need and want? Are the staff members who guide the volunteers instruction guiding in the right direction?

It is obvious that ESL students dont know what the item they are checking off on the Goal Sheet means because, during the data collection part of this research, they asked to have the word culture defined. This project includes information about what the students do want to learn and why. It also gives us a glimpse at how ESL students perceive Americans as we go about our daily life. It also emphasizes the importance of involving students in lesson planning to be sure we help prepare them to become active participants in the community in which they live.

What do ESL Students Mean When they Say They Want to Learn about American Culture?
How do Some ESL Students Define American Culture?

PALPIN PROJECT Susan H. Evans Spring 2001

Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council 100 Sheridan Square, 4th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15206

THE STORY OF THE QUESTION

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the number of immigrants in the United States has increased from around 10 million in 1970 to nearly 30 million today. In recent years, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council (GPLC) has also experienced a tremendous increase in the number of English as a Second Language (ESL) students served. As of April 2001, 60% of both the active students and the waiting list students are ESL students. We do not recruit ESL students! Current students, satisfied customers, do the recruiting for us. When asked where they heard about GPLC, most new ESL students say, From a friend

ESL students have diverse home cultures, instructional needs, wants, life experiences, religions, and on and on. The one thing they all have in common is

the experience of culture shock as they work through the process of adjusting to life in the United States and, in particular, in Pittsburgh, PA.

I see the tremendous diversity of the ESL students when I deliver the ESL New Student Information Session twice each month. When each incoming group gathers, its a fun experience for me. Im a sort of white-bread, middle-aged woman with few adventures and limited travel under my belt. I feel pretty darn dowdy most evenings with my sensible shoes and middle-aged ladys outfit and my lack of any language but English. Ive met with groups that included young women who were wearing bare mid-drift tops and mini-skirts, middle-aged women and men in suits and saris, and women completely veiled with only their eyes exposed. Some people appear to be comfortable in the group situation and others are obviously uncomfortable, if not frightened.

It never ceases to amaze me that all these people with limited language skills find their way to a building in the city, face an intimidating security guard, make their way to the 21st floor and then follow the signs in English to the room where I wait. It drives me crazy that some of my native-speaker friends with cars describe a trip across town as impossible because theyve never been there before.

During the interview and assessment step, all students are presented with a list of items and asked why they want to learn English. Almost without exception, there is one item checked on each students goal sheet that makes me pause.

Everyone wants to learn more about American culture. When I think about our students various home cultures, experiences, beliefs, and needs, I wonder what each one of them means by that request. How does each define American culture? What do people who come from such different cultures want to learn about American culture? Could they all possible mean the same thing? They are so different, how could they be asking for the same information?

In one community, there are refugees from Bosnia and Africa. They work at entry-level jobs and live in a huge, old, low-rent complex in small, cramped apartments. Often, they speak English only in class and theyre tired and stressed, so their progress is slow. Each group came from very homogenous cultures to this racially mixed, lower middle-class Pittsburgh apartment complex with all the problems that implies.

While starting over and adjusting to a new life is tough for both groups, the African refugees as the most recent arrivals at this excruciatingly different place are at the bottom of the pecking order in the community and have the greatest problems to deal with now. Both groups have experienced homelessness and trauma. What does American culture mean to them?

In another neighborhood, there is a large group of elderly Russian Jewish refugees. They live in a tight-knit city neighborhood with a large Jewish population and a very active Community Center that provides support services. Many of these students are retired, highly educated professional people who

receive social security and some additional support from their adult professional children. They seldom venture out of the community without family or friends. What do they want to learn about American culture?

We also serve a large population of students who migrated voluntarily to the U. S. This is a diverse group. These adults are in Pittsburgh either permanently or temporarily and they come with a wide range of financial and personal resources. There are those with little money and no English who are working in ethnic restaurants every day and evening, struggling to support themselves and their families. Some are here alone for years, working to earn money to bring family to join them. They squeeze in English lessons early in the morning before staring their days work.

Some GPLC students are here on visas while they study or work. That group includes the doctors, researchers and high-tech professionals who studied English for ten or more years, who know more about grammar than I ever will and are highly proficient in technical English and take lovely vacations, but cant speak everyday English! Their spouses often have far fewer English skills and have to find ways to manage the dayto-day chores, do the shopping and take the children to school. They wish for a friend to talk with! They seem frustrated and lonely.

The graduate students with strong language skills in their academic specialty and weak knowledge of functional, life and social skills must feel as if they are

split down the middle. In the academic part of their life they are skilled and accomplished, but in the other part, theyre reduced to a childlike dependency on others. What do they want to learn?

So as I review each students list of goals and note that learn more about American culture checked off, I always wonder what that student really means. Do an Asian grad student and an illiterate African refugee and a South American immigrant want to learn the same thing? What about the woman in the veils with her husband at her side, the Russian grandmother and the young Bosnian family?

So my question is, What do some ESL students say when I ask them questions about American Culture?

DATA COLLLECTION
I wrote three questions and asked our two professional instructors and four AmeriCorps members to ask their students to respond to the questions. I explained what I was trying to get at and encouraged the teachers to re-word the questions in any way that enabled the students to understand and respond.

1. How is American culture different from your home culture? 2. What are some things you see as relating to American culture that confuse you?

3. If you were teaching newcomers about American culture, what would you teach them?

I thought that being asked the questions by a teacher with whom the student has a relationship might result in some more elaborate answers than if I asked. They might feel they have to be polite to a stranger from the Main Office or reduce their answer because of concerns about grammar! (There I go imposing my own cultural expectations on the students!) I also asked some of our incoming students the same questions at three of the Information Sessions.

As I collected the data, another question came to mind. What do staff members think that item means? They directly impact what is taught. But would their answers be the same as the students? So I asked the coordinators, several instructors and a volunteer what they would teach a student who checked on the American Culture item on the Goals Sheet.

FINDINGS
Student Data:
First of all, students dont know what the word culture means in the American culture item on the goals sheet. When asked questions about culture during the research, the response was, What does culture mean? No surprise. But do the same students ask for clarification during the initial interview? Usually, no.

The question about things that confuse ESL students resulted in more

interesting responses. The English language itself was described repeatedly as being confusing. Some words have many different meanings and there are so many idioms. One man told me the language takes so much time to learn and it involves a whole different way of thinking.

A number of students mentioned our holidays as something they dont understand. Sometimes Americans and they celebrate the same holidays, but on a different day and/or in a different way. The major confusion came from the holidays that are strictly American like Thanksgiving. The tutor said she had a particularly hard time answering the students questions about why pink and blue bunnies are sold at Easter and why we celebrate St. Patricks Day with drinking parties. I wonder!

Food was a problem how do you order in a restaurant? One student ate only at McDonalds because she couldnt manage ordering in a restaurant. They ask so many questions! And - why is everything so sweet? What is takeaway (take-out)? Where can I find fresh fish?

One comment made me squirm and look down at my shoes. An African woman said that women who wear tennis shoes with good suits have bad taste. In Africa, people wear tennis shoes for basketball only!

Survival skills: How do I go about job hunting and job interviewing? Why doesnt everyone have health insurance and sick days with pay? Our driving

rules confuse many people. If I have a green light, why cant I turn left? Why are all the oncoming cars coming at me? My light is green?

There were comments about our relationship behaviors. Women are more liberal in America. There is so much divorce and remarriage! People have babies without marriage theres no father to raise the children, which was especially upsetting to people from cultures in which the family is all-important.

One recurring comment was our way of smiling and saying hello to people we dont know. We seem to become friends with anyone simply by exchanging first names. Yet, as students said, they later realized we arent really friends with everyone. One man commented that Americans have a false friendliness about them. Someone who says hell help you says that just to be nice. He said American keep their distance.

A frequent concern was a request for help with whats polite. What can you talk about with people? Can you ask about age? Salary? Who must I tip? One advanced Asian student told me emphatically that what everyone really wants to know is how they can fit in, so they can make friends. The issue of friendship was mentioned repeatedly.

Staff Data
I asked, What is your definition of American culture? What would you teach in

response to that item?

Most staff members were not certain they knew what students wanted. One said she makes no assumptions; she just plays it safe and asks. Only one person was sure she knew what the students wanted! She directed a tutor to teach about Holidays because, Thats what makes us Americans.

Recurring themes in the staffs definition of culture were our common practices and the things we do on a daily basis. Understanding references from the past, our history, pop culture, and our Holidays are all things staff would teach. With the background knowledge, our behaviors and even the way we use the language would make more sense. That reinforces the students comment that learning English involves a whole different way of thinking.

Volunteer Tutor Data

The one experienced tutor I talked with spends a great deal of time teaching the American Holidays. Her students are all parents whose children attend American schools where all the holidays are celebrated in the classroom. She builds her lessons around the students questions! The tutor does a lot of research before teaching why we celebrate the holidays we do the way we do, how and where the holidays originated sometimes a history lesson - and how the forms of the celebrations have changed over time. The discussion can go in any direction based upon the students in the group at the time.

IMPLICATIONS
Most students dont know what they are checking off when they check off the American Culture item on the goals sheet! I suspect that students are responding to the word American. I wonder which other items they check off and dont understand.

Unless we ask some follow-up questions, we are missing a chance to learn what a student really wants to learn. With the diversity of definitions of culture, handled well, this item could produce rich information for lesson planning. But to answer that question, often requires more than beginning level English skills on the students part. Shouldnt we be asking this question regularly, not just at intake?

Theres also a lot of room for tutors to interpret that item, with good intentions, in any way they want. So were reminded of the necessity of strongly encouraging student involvement in lesson planning.

One advanced student commented that you cant study a culture and truly learn it. You need to participate in and experience the culture. To participate, takes strong enough language skills and frequent enough opportunities to practice being an American, whatever that means! We grew up in this culture and made our mistakes along the way without others assuming we were doing something inappropriately because were a foreigner. Participating in American culture can be a risky business full of opportunities for mistakes and embarrassment.

Students might enjoy being included in social and other activities with a guide their tutor?

When the students talked about American culture, I learned how they see my behavior. A different perspective can be a shock! We do wear ugly shoes and we drive so badly that the highway department has erected signs encouraging us to drive courteously. Theyre right we do smile and act friendly to everyone, but we dont mean everyone is our friend. Are those smiles and His, perhaps, a way to keep people at a distance and not to draw attention to ourselves, our way of fitting in? Maybe they are a way of softening the direct eye contact we consider so important, but may be rude or a form of a challenge in another culture?

Our false friendliness is an accurate observation from outside, but I think it serves a purpose. Americans do a lot of things that help us keep peace. We say things like, Sure - give me a call if you need some help moving that piano. Then, unless you are a real friend, we hope you dont call, or we find an excuse to be busy on moving day! Its a polite way of saying, No, that can be very confusing for anyone who doesnt understand our culture!

Perhaps the best way of teaching students about our culture is through the relationship that forms so often between students and volunteer tutors. Those subtle unspoken behaviors and the messages they carry, as well as the ways we use our language keep people who dont know true meanings out of our

culture. Each group has its own jargon. Providing a confidant and a guide, of sorts, of whom a student can ask any kinds of questions, may be the best way to help students accomplish this particular goal of learning more about American culture.