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Week 05: Culture Paradigms (5/17/22)

 

Is it a six or a nine? The answer will depend on who you ask. Likewise, if we ask questions such as what is beautiful and what is ugly? What is shameful and what is not? What is being polite and what is not? We will get different answers because we were not all raised with the same values, ideas or principles. And this is something fundamental to take into account in a classroom. What kinds of cultural paradigms do I have? What kinds of cultural paradigms do the students have?

There are so many different ways of looking at the world, what may be embarrassing to someone is totally normal to someone else. A well-known BYU professor, Irving, said "Your paradigms force you to interpret reality in a certain way." How students and teacher perceive each other is key to creating an environment in which learning flows in a natural and enjoyable way. Feedback from student to teacher and vice versa is therefore of vital importance. A space for feedback is key to know if we are taking the right path, are we comfortable doing certain activities? What are the rules to abide by in the classroom? What behaviors are considered impolite and what are not? For some it is obvious, for others it is something totally new or means something different.

On the other hand, when you are a student there is this vulnerability of going into the unknown, in the case of a language learner, of pronouncing new sounds that may never have been pronounced, of having to memorize and apply new vocabulary and grammatical rules can be very overwhelming and somewhat tedious; which is why the way in which students acquire information is key.  Conveying useful material in an interesting and engaging way will keep students on the edge of their seats and wanting to come back to the next class to discover something new.



Comentarios

  1. iSABEL18 de mayo de 2022 a las 11:00

    I think we can´t tell which is the right path until we can see the results. About the rules, since the begining we need to talk with the students about them. No matter the paradigms of each one, the rules must be follow as they are. The first one for me is the tolerance and respect

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    1. Tatiana Cevallos18 de mayo de 2022 a las 13:21

      Tolerance and respect is important and provides a safe environment for learning. Motivating students to be tolerant of other people's differences should be one of the priorities in the classroom.

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