Intercultural competencies classes

Lesson 1. Cultural adaptation.

Lesson procedure presentation : https://drive.google.com/file/d/10CKYvXIONe9-8_6qsM0_HmZAGHrVLy-s/view?usp=sharing

PLANNING AND PREPARATION FOR THE CLASS
My leading teacher asked me to teach this topic as I have had 2 big personal experiences of cultural adaptation: being a student in a foreign country and being an immigrant. The topic was indeed close to my heart and I was excited to teach it. The class focused on the stages of cultural adaptation, U-curve and its criticisms in literature, cultural shock and the ways to deal with it. I decided to include many personal references from my adaptation periods in the US and Finnish cultures when explaining the theory, which would make my class personalized and I believed interesting for students to participate in. My plan was to invite feedback from students on many stages as all of them are exchange students who all have been adapting to the new culture and have a lot to share. I decided to start my lesson with cultural presentation about Belarus as it fits the intercultural competences course curriculum perfectly and the students had a chance to discover a new unknown European culture.

HOW DID I FEEL BEFORE CLASS?
I felt a bit nervous as it was not a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign language class), but a course in intercultural communication, which I had never taught before. Moreover the class was 2, 5 hour long, and it is so far the longest class I’ve ever taught.

HOW DO I FEEL AFTER THE CLASS?I feel full of energy and excitement. The class went well. The objectives were met, the students were actively participating in the class discussions, we established good rapport and communication. It was invigorating to share own experiences connected to theory and get active feedback from the students who are going through the same things as well.

WHAT WENT WELL IN CLASS? WHAT WORKED?

Everything worked quite well. Padlet task of writing down three most “shocking” things about Finland was a success. Students felt excited to share and discuss their experiences in the Finnish culture and with the Finnish people. I believe me being a foreigner helped them open up and discuss more confidently about these things. 5 Rs activity using the learning cafe method was a great success as well. Students were engaged to ponder and comprehend the things that make them go through the cultural shock stage. My decision to group them beforehand with a partner from a different culture served the objective of promoting intercultural dialogue and perspectives and was enthusiastically met by the students.

WHAT DIDN’T GO SO WELL? WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?

Next time I’ll give not 7 but 5 minutes for each R in 5Rs activity, as the conversation almost at all tables with Rs was finished within 4-5 minutes.

MY STRENGTHS

• Logical procedure
• Personal experiences connected to theory
• Engaging tasks

POINTS FOR IMPROVEMENT

All went rather well.

GUIDINGTEACHER’S FEEDBACK
Only positive feedback. The teacher enjoyed the class and the activities.

Lesson 2. Observation vs Interpretation

Lesson procedure presentation link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VNOTO9Dv9fki9uyPx-j_OTeRkHxi-lAG/view?usp=sharing

The main objectives of the class were:
-illustrate to the students the difference between observation of the facts and interpretation of what we see

– practice the skill of observing the facts without assigning the meaning by using OSEE and DAE tools

– demonstrate through exercises that our interpretation and judgement of the facts is done through our cultural lenses.

PLANNING AND PREPARATION FOR THE CLASS
It was the first class to be held online due to the covid-19 spread. I chose to use Adobe connect app as it was rather familiar to me to use.
I decided to incorporate one of the guiding teachers’ activities into my lesson plan, however, design it completely for virtual environment. The initial activity was for students to look at pictures for some time and note down what they see on the picture followed by group discussions. I decided to take a risk and use Facebook for this activity instead of a slide show. I created a Facebook page where I posted the pictures for the activity the students needed to comment on. When the comments were posted, I asked the students to go over their peers’ comments and evaluate and find the examples of observation and interpretation. Thus, students could themselves think and comment on each picture and then process the comments of their peers critically pondering on whether they were pure observation or our interpretation.
Choosing Facebook is risky as there can be students who do not have FB account or do not feel comfortable using it in studies. I planned to ask the students whether it was okay to use the FB app for the activity, and I devised plan B (slide show, note taking and discussion) in case someone would not want to do it. The exercise were to be followed by theory and introduction of tools and that was followed by another exercise designed by me on cultural contextualization, which was done with the help of Google drive.

HOW DID I FEEL BEFORE CLASS?
A bit nervous as it was the first class online during the teaching practice. However, I had a well-prepared plan and the activities were in my opinion engaging and interesting, which added confidence.

HOW DO I FEEL AFTER THE CLASS?
Energised and excited. It went great, students agreed to do the Facebook exercise easily, and they were all really engaged and participated actively. I love teaching intercultural communication -related topics!

WHAT WENT WELL IN CLASS? WHAT WORKED?
Everything worked rather well. The only thing was the fact that some students did not feel comfortable talking in AC, they preferred writing instead. I tried to encourage them to speak out, however, some of them openly wrote, that they prefer writing. It was interesting to observe, as in classroom these particular students did not have any reservations of speaking and expressing their opinions in front of the class. I believe it was due to the fact that for many of the students it was their first time using AC room as a classroom environment and they did not feel familiar with it, which made it awkward for them. Still there were the brave ones who spoke out loud actively!

WHAT DIDN’T GO SO WELL? WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?
I won’t change a thing, I believe. Everything went smoothly.

MY STRENGTHS

• Engaging exercises which provoked active critical thinking
• Visuals
• Logic of the lesson stages
• Use of familiar to students’ online tools (Facebook, Google Drive, Padlet). With exception of AC for some students.

GUIDING TEACHER’S FEEDBACK
My guiding teacher gave e a very positive feedback and praised me on the lesson design and preparation. She found the use of Facebook to be an excellent choice for meeting the learning objectives of the task. No points for improvement were suggested.