The new school year has just started. We’ve already enrolled many students from diverse backgrounds. To me, it feels like learning everything new all over again. Their languages, their cultures, and the influence those cultures have had on their languages. Then I paused and asked myself: Why do I have to learn their cultures? Why can’t I just simply teach the language?
In the past few years of my teaching, one of the biggest challenges has been the influence of culture on English language learning. For example, I was talking to a couple of students from Eritrea. They had always been very quiet but hardworking—probably the most diligent ones in my class. It took me a very long time to realize that sometimes they didn’t fully understand the content. They never asked questions. I only found out by coincidence, and later, in conversation, they explained that in their country students were not allowed to question their teachers. Asking was considered disrespectful, and at times, even punishable.
The opposite was true with a couple of students from Ukraine in my class. They “questioned” me after nearly everything I said or explained. At first, I took it very personally. I thought they were challenging my qualifications, doubting my ability, or even questioning my knowledge. For a while, it really upset me. But when we were approaching the end of the school year, those same students gave me big hugs, brought homemade national dishes, and told me I was the best teacher they had ever had. I was stunned. All along, I had thought they didn’t like me.
These two experiences showed me how easy it is to misinterpret students’ behaviour if I only look at it from my perspective as an ESL instructor. Silence is not necessarily equal to understanding, and constant questioning doesn’t always reflect doubt. In both cases, the students were showing respect in the way they had been taught to. I just didn’t know it at the time.
That’s why I need to and want to learn about my students’ cultures. It helps me bridge the gap between their familiar ways of learning and the new environment they are entering. It allows me to see their strengths through their own cultural lens and understand how they approach the new language in a new environment with a new teacher, not just through my expectations. More importantly, it shows respect. When students feel their culture is valued, they are more willing to take risks, engage in class, and use English authentically.
At the end of the day, I am not just teaching grammar and vocabulary. I am teaching people who bring with them unique identities, traditions, and perspectives. Recognizing and learning their cultures is not an optional extra; it is a necessary part of language teaching. And the more I learn about them, the more I grow as a teacher.
2 Comments
Dear Bei Zhang,
I enjoyed reading your article very much, especially those parts when you like many of us, including me, often do not know our students, their cultures, their inner philosophy and values.
I am Armenian by origin, and I was studied mainly in Armenia, where teachers were respected and honoured. At the same time, however, asking questions to the teachers was considered to be sign of your enlargement of your knowledge as a student WITH your teacher. In your case with the Ukranian students, you answered their questions so well and thoroughly that at the end of the school year you became the best teacher they had ever had.
Thank you for your blog.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I really appreciate the way you connected your own experiences and background with what I shared. It makes the conversation feel so much richer. It’s wonderful to hear about the Armenian context, where respect for teachers and curiosity from students went hand in hand. I think that balance of honouring teachers while also encouraging students to ask questions is exactly what makes learning so meaningful.
Your message truly brightened my day.