Page 18 - ELG1710 Oct Issue 451

COMMENT .
FEATURES & COMMENT

Hazma Butt and those super inducers, the Singaporeans. CULTURE QUIZ
We also see learning cultures in terms
of politics and ethics. Anglo-Saxons
think teacher-centred is bad because it is
undemocratic. So all democracies must be
student-centred right? Well not in France, or n Match the country to the degree n Match the country to the degree
Belgium or Portugal. to which it has a deductive learning to which it has a competitive learning
culture:
culture:
While Japan is hardly teacher-centred at all
and Slovakia is the most teacher-centred in Australia a) Highest Finland a) Highest
the world. Finland b) Very High Japan b) Very High
Learning cultures just do not fit neatly into Ireland c) Moderately high Netherlands c) Moderately high
single boxes. Japan d) Equally balanced Slovakia d) Equally balanced
Native speaker teachers of English need to Russia e) Moderately low Singapore e) Moderately low
remember that not one of the students they Singapore f) Very low South Korea f) Very low
teach shares all the aspects of their learning USA g) Lowest USA g) Lowest
culture. In multicultural classes the problem is d) Australia e) USA f) Ireland g) Singapore e) South Korea f) Finland g) Netherlands
even worse.
Culture is: our way is the best way, and the rest of n Match the country to the degree Answers: a) Russia b) Japan c) Finland a) Slovakia b) Japan c) USA d) Singapore
All too often, the Anglo-Saxon response
the world can just copy us. We do student-
centred, so will you. We do inductive learning,
to which it has a teacher - centred
just get on with it. Of course personalisation
learning culture:
is the answer to everything, to hell with
clash collaboration. Best practice is what we do. Germany a) Highest
I have always wondered why the world
b) Very High
Denmark
believes us. Because whatever it is that Anglo
c) Moderately high
Japan
Saxon learning culture is good at, it certainly
Singapore
d) Equally balanced
isn’t learning languages.
Slovakia
e) Moderately low
South Korea
f) Very low
MELANIE BUTLER
Editor at large USA g) Lowest
It’s easy to make the wrong assumptions about students’ native learning cultures, @MelanieButler_E d) Japan e) USA f) Germany g) Denmark
says Melanie Butler, because it’s a lot more complex than ‘East meets West’ a) Slovakia b) Singapore c) South Korea
ulture is ‘the collective programming getting students to draw logical inference or when you’ve finished eating.
of the mind’. So says the Dutch inductively, expecting them to discover rules But when it comes to learning culture
social psychologist Geert Hofstede for themselves. we tend to think in terms of East and West.
Cwhose ground-breaking work on The first thing I was ever told on my EFL We’re prepared to cut some cultural slack for
national and corporate cultures famously training course was that inductive learning Koreans or Kuwaitis but if somebody looks like Caption style
analyses culture across six separate areas. was always better because students are more us, we presume they must learn like us. CREDIT HERE thus
The issue of the influence of culture and likely to remember something they discover. In fact, the vast majority of European
whether it does, or should, impact on the I was also taught to be student-centred – too learning cultures are deductive, unsurprisingly
way we teach English was raised in the July much teacher talking time was a crime. And I since it is a rigorous method of logical thought
Gazette by Jocelyn Wang from Chinese private was told to ignore the group dynamics of the passed down from the Ancient Greeks.
education provider New Oriental. She argued Modern Greece still has one of the most
that China’s strong educational culture should Native speaker deductive learning cultures in the world.
be harnessed, not ignored. It caused a Twitter Only three cultural groups are
storm. teachers of English predominately inductive: the Anglo-Saxons
Does culture influence the way we need to remember that (except the Australians), the Scandinavians
learn? A paper by Hulb Wurster and Carel (except the Finns) and the Chinese (except
Jacobs correlating educational systems and not one of the students Taiwan). Even the exceptions in these
philosophies in 20 countries with Hofstede’s groups tend to be only moderately deductive,
different areas shows that it does. they teach shares all the however, with the Australians being evenly
Three of Hofstede’s six key areas seem to balanced.
me to be most important for English language aspects of their learning We see learning culture as a single whole.
teaching. First we have Power Distance, which culture. Anglo Saxons are both inductive and
equates to how teacher-centred a culture is. competitive – so other inductive cultures
Second, there is Masculinity, which means must be competitive too. Well the British, the
the extent to which a culture is competitive class to concentrate on the achievement of mainland Chinese and the deductive Germans
– how much the success of education is each individual student. Personalization, after are exactly equally competitive, teaching to
measured by individual achievement rather all, is the ultimate goal, isn’t it? the top and rewarding academic achievement.
than student collaboration. I believed then that these are not universal The Scandinavians, are the exact opposite,
Thirdly, there is Uncertainty Avoidance – or truths – they are just what Anglo-Saxons they are collaborative, teaching to the middle
how much a society values structure, expertise are taught to believe. Learning is just another and valuing social cohesion over exam results
and clear logical rules. In educational terms, cultural quirk like who you are supposed to with the result that a much higher proportion
this term measures whether a culture teaches kiss and how many times you are supposed to of their students do well. These same cultural
deductively, by giving rules and facts and kiss them or how you place your knife and fork values are shared with South Korea, France
18 October 2017 editorial@elgazette.com 19