s international educators, one goalwe set is to become multiculturalindividuals, able to interact with

those who are not like us cul-turally. Helping our studentsbuild a sense of intercultural

community with fellow students and teachersis an equally important priority. The chanceto hone our communication skills with peo-ple from a variety of cultures is too valu-able an opportunity to miss inheterogeneous ESL classes. So, just aswe concern ourselves with skill-building tasks, effective teachingstrategies, and appropriate culturalthemes, we should also attempt tomake cultural community building acomponent of our classes and cur-riculum planning.

My introduction to cultural com-munity came from Wurzel andFischman’s (1995) work on buildingcultural community in U.S. academicclassrooms. Their research led me toexplore the idea of community in U.S.English-language programs (ELPs),where students are generally extended-staysojourners who do not share a common cul-ture with their teacher or with very few, ifany, classmates. Furthermore, for many, thisis their first exposure to living overseas and amulticultural environment.

This article offers a definition of culturalcommunity, discusses some obstacles to itsachievement, and suggests ways of fostering

it. Because I work in an intensive Englishprogram (IEP), this article draws from expe-riences and activities in that setting.However, building cultural community isimportant regardless of the specific ESL/EFLcontext.

Our students will benefit from culturallearning and intercultural competencewhether they are in K–12 classrooms, adulteducation courses, or IEPs. With adequatebackground knowledge and training, second

language (L2) teachers are in the distinctposition to help students in this regard. It ismy hope that my ideas will prompt furtherdiscussion on building cultural community inother ESL/EFL settings.

What is CulturalCommunity?

Building cultural community meansfostering meaningful communicationamong all group members when theydo not share a common worldview(which encompasses shared knowl-edge, beliefs, values, attitudes, com-munication styles, and history).Hess (1994) discusses four culturalattitudes integral to effective inter-cultual interaction. A group’s abilityto foster or achieve cultural commu-nity is more likely when1. members acknowledge and

respect cultural difference.Diversity is viewed as good,

meaningful, and helpful in achiev-ing course goals.

2. members openly acknowledge culturaldifferences and embrace the challengesof learning in a culturally diverse group.

3. members want to interact with eachother. They see the classroom as a safeplace to make meaningful associations, toeducate, and to learn. They connect asunique individuals of a culture ratherthan as stereotyped representatives.

26 TESOL Journal

Building CulturalCommunity in EnglishLanguage ProgramsMargaret Coffey

AThe chance to hone

our communication skills

with people from a variety

of cultures is too valuable an

opportunity to miss in

heterogeneous

ESL classes.

Summer 1999 27

4. there is a mutual, cooperative exchangeof ideas and information. Membersbelieve they have a responsibility to giveas well as receive in the learning process(possibly a new attitude for students) orto receive as well as give (possibly a newattitude for teachers). (p. 12)

Over the years, my colleagues and I havewitnessed experiences in our classes that sug-gest that cultural community was present. Forexample:• Students made a point to call each other

by name and were concerned about pro-nouncing each other’s names correctly.

• Students chose to sit by students from cul-tural and language groups other than theirown. Before and after class, students chat-ted in English with people from differentcultures.

• A student asked to make an announce-ment in class to invite all of his class-mates to his country’s liberationday celebration in the studentunion. Similarly, a student in achoral group shared excitingnews that his group had cut itsfirst CD and invited classmatesto an upcoming concert.

• During small-group work focus-ing on differences between U.S.male and female nonverbal com-munication, students shifted intoa discussion about body languagedifferences across cultures. At theend of the activity, the group askedto continue their conversation withthe whole class because it was so inter-esting. The teacher agreed.

• When a student was asked to define theword peer, he smiled and said, “All of myfriends in this class.”

Building CulturalCommunity

Building a sense of cultural community inthe classroom is not easy to achieve. Beforediscussing ways to promote cultural commu-nity, it is worth noting two significant con-siderations. First, students may need to beprepared to cooperate and participate in theprocess. Second, teachers may require betterpreparation to develop and incorporate activi-ties that achieve desired curriculum goals butreflect and respect the cultural diversity oftheir learners.

Preparing Students forCultural Community

Students may, at first, resist the idea ofcultural community as being a waste of time.Some have openly told me, for instance, that

they were just not interested in learning aboutcultural differences. In ELPs, students com-monly possess different learning styles, com-munication styles, and cultural knowledgethat can lead to conflict, confusion, and dis-agreements that are hard to resolve. In anattempt to build cultural community, teachersmay be confronted by negative reactions onthe part of students, such as aggression, with-drawal, apathy, egocentrism, ethnocentrism,and complaining (Bassano & Christison,1995). For instance, one of my studentsasked to be excused from working in smallgroups with two classmates because “peoplefrom those countries learn slower than wedo.” In the face of this discouraging attitude,teachers may want to retreat to traditional

teacher-centered classrooms where effectiveinteraction among all class members is notimperative to students meeting course objec-tives. While lessening student interactionmay help preserve superficial calm in theclassroom momentarily, in the long run it isdetrimental to the overall process of buildingintercultural community because “conflictsremain unresolved and unexplained, perpetu-ating cultural isolation, prejudice and mis-trust” (Wurzel & Fischman, 1995, p. 17).Students are more likely to benefit as learnersand communicators if teachers are willing toacknowledge and address differences beforeconflicts arise. One way to do this is toexplore cultural assumptions underlying atti-tudes that may lead to such problems.

Preparing Educators forCultural Community

Teachers, as well as students, may not beprepared to build cultural community in the

classroom. As of 1996, “only 1/3 of the U.S.TESL/TEFL programs even offereda coursein culture” (Reid, 1995/1996, p. 3). Withoutsufficient preparation in what it means toteach in an intercultural classroom, teachersmay know that their students come frommany different countries, but not have asense of how to integrate their history, cul-tural backgrounds, and life experiences intotheir courses. They may unwittingly presentethnocentric cultural values regarding class-room interaction, instruction, and studentperformance. This is not to say that ESLinstructors should not focus on dominant cul-tural values for U.S. education. Many, myselfincluded, might argue that this is necessary toensure the academic success of our students.At the same time, in a climate of culturalcommunity, our intent is to familiarize ourstudents with the U.S. educational system in

a context that recognizes and values aca-demic cultural norms other than our

own.One of the most effective ways to

increase teachers’ interculturalknowledge and skills is throughcourse work in MA programs thatincludes, among other components,relevant readings, cross-culturalsimulations, cultivation of an eth-norelative world view, and involve-ment with a different co-culture(Johnson, 1997). Such activities orexperiences will help TESL students

develop their intercultural sensitivity,skills, and perspectives. Without these

opportunities, graduates are left to seekout this professional development on their

own, which is now too often the case.

Fostering CulturalCommunity in OurClassrooms

While sharing cultural backgrounds andclass socializing help build community, moreoften it is the daily engagement of students inactivities requiring collaboration, problemsolving, and coparticipation in some curricu-lum choices that creates the context in whichcommunity is formed. Practical applicationswill vary from program to program and classto class. However, there are several generalobjectives that will help students learn in acontext of difference: sharing power withstudents, encouraging tolerance for ambigu-ity, fostering empathy, fostering cooperation,and building an understanding of culturalvalues.

Sharing Power with StudentsAs a first step in community building,

teachers can begin by giving up some control

Teachers may require

better preparation to

develop and incorporate

activities that achieve desired

curriculum goals but reflect

and respect the cultural

diversity of their

learners.

in the classroom and sharing power with stu-dents. When setting syllabus priorities andcourse expectations, there are a number ofways to get students involved. For instance,if a course goal is to study a certain numberof topics about the host culture, the teachercould give students a list of topics and letthem choose what they want to investigate.Suppose they choose writing effective intro-ductions as a topic. Rather than lead themthrough the process, the teacher might assigna group of students to come up with a set ofsuggestions for their peers. By handing oversome of the power and responsibility oflearning and stepping back, teachers canobserve their students’ different styles oflearning. For example, in one of my classes, Inoticed that students from a particular regionappeared to learn through confrontation. Ifrequently heard comments like “You arewrong,” “I don’t believe you,” and“This activity won’t help me improvemy English.” What I perceived to beargumentative comments made meuncomfortable but did not seem tobother the students, so I encouragedthe interaction and came to appreci-ate some of its benefits. For one, itkept the lines of communicationopen. It also gave me opportunitiesto explain cultural assumptions andexpectations underlying certainassignments that I might otherwisehave missed.

Encouraging Tolerance forAmbiguity

As a second step in community building,teachers can choose tasks that encourage tol-erance for ambiguity. Newly arrived Englishlanguage learners are adjusting to many dif-ferences in their lives. Teachers can helpthem adjust by exposing them to lessons andtopics in which outcomes and expectationsare not always predictable or certain.

Activities that give students a chance toacknowledge and explore what is confusingought to precede activities that developstrategies for accommodating the new,strange, and unknown aspects of the aca-demic setting. In one class, for example, Ihave students read a true story about a fatherand son whose cultural values about appro-priate male gender roles grew apart as theson embraced the values of his secondary(U.S.) culture and the father kept those of hisprimary culture. This prompted an interestingdiscussion about the validity of the story.One student passionately declared that eventhough he and his friends were now living inthe United States, they were going to keeptheir Russian ways and would never becomeAmerican. In contrast, others found the story

very plausible. One student explained thather mother argued with her about herAmerican habits, such as staying out late orworking outside of the family restaurant. In areaction paper, another student wrote, “Wehave to leave our father’s culture behind. Wehave no choice.” As a follow-up activity, theteacher can help the class work through howsimilar life circumstances, specifically immi-grating to a new country, can lead to contra-dictory outcomes.

Fostering EmpathyCultural community can be enhanced

when teachers choose assignments that foster

empathy. They should structure lessons sothat students are required to predict how peo-ple from other cultures in the same situationmight feel or react. The goal is to have stu-dents learn to suspend judgment whenencountering cultural difference.

One such activity might be to have stu-dents examine cultural stereotyping. Becausestudents might feel uncomfortable discussingcultural stereotypes openly in the presence oftheir classmates, have them begin this activ-ity by sharing their perceptions of U.S. cul-ture. This gives students a chance to see thatcultural stereotyping is a common experi-ence, that their own cultural values and rulesmay be similar to others’, and that there maybe logical reasons why people draw mistakenconclusions about other cultures. It also givesstudents a chance to see how to work beyondthe stereotype to form a broader, more realis-tic assessment of the culture.

Fostering CooperationAnother important way to build a sense of

cultural community is to include ampleassignments that foster cooperation.Collaborative tasks provide “opportunitiesfor students to work jointly with other stu-dents in an intellectual endeavor; to cooper-ate with each other or to willingly assist eachother” (Bassano & Christison, 1995, p. 5).Interdependence in the learning processencourages a sense of community.

One collaborative activity that seems toappeal to ESL students is involvement incampus life, such as joining a school club ororganization. Although designed for interme-diate reading and writing students, this pro-ject could be adapted to other types of ESLcourses. First, ask students to list the cam-

pus groups that interest them the most.Then, have them compile backgroundinformation, printed material, meetingtimes, and locations for those groups.After presenting their findings to theclass, have students sign up inteams of two or three to visit theclub or organization of their choice.Ask the teams to compose a set ofobjectives to achieve when visiting.For instance, they might want tofind out what a typical meeting islike and if other international stu-dents belong to that club. Or they

might want to observe how membersinteract with each other and if they

make newcomers feel welcome. What isimportant is for students to decide what

they want to learn (with guidance from theinstructor). The class can also discuss strate-gies for meeting objectives, such as inter-viewing a club member to learn the club’srules, purpose, and activities and the benefitsof membership.

Once students have attended club meet-ings, each team writes up a report. Based onthe findings, the class then evaluates whichclubs would be good, neutral, or poor picksfor new international students still workingon their language skills. The class finallypublishes their findings in a class article toshare with others in their ELP.

The primary aim of this collaborative pro-ject is to foster community among classmembers by having students learn to workwith and rely on each other to achieve theirgoals. As one colleague (A. Lachman, per-sonal communication, March 1998) pointedout, this kind of activity also helps build cul-tural community across campus. Studentscould be encouraged to share their observa-tions with the campus groups they visited,explaining what made them feel at home orpossibly marginalized. The goal would be to

28 TESOL Journal

Students are more

likely to benefit as learners

and communicators if

teachers are willing to

acknowledge and address

differences before

conflicts arise.

Summer 1999 29

stimulate campuswide discussion to enhancecultural awareness and sensitivity.

Building an Understanding ofCultural Values

A fundamental component of communitybuilding is building an understanding of cul-tural values. This means designing activitiesthat give students a chance to identify, ana-lyze, and critique value systems, beliefs, andcommunication styles that underlie coursecontent. Having some kind of cultural frame-work that explains and organizes these com-plex concepts will help students build anunderstanding of cultural values. One frame-work I have used is Wurzel and Fischman’s(1995) “Dyadic Continuum” of ValueOrientations (pp. 20-21), which looks athow cultural groups perceive conceptssuch as the role of authority, relation-ships, activity, and time within asociety.

Once students have a basicunderstanding of major interculturaldimensions, they can begin to applythis knowledge to assignments andsituations in their course. For exam-ple, they can begin to grasp whysome of their peers seem reluctant tojoin in class discussions or why theirteachers behave so informally com-pared to teachers at home. Theme- andcontent-based units, such as Blanton andLee’s (1995) “Working for Social andPolitical Change” (pp. 91-144), work wellbecause they are replete with cultural valuesand require students to share information,thoughts, and reactions.

As a final step toward cultural commu-nity, encourage students to assess their expe-rience as a member of the class. One of thegreatest strengths of community buildingmay lie in the cultural self-understanding itcan bring to those who participate in the pro-cess. One tool for synthesizing the experi-ence is an end-of-semester questionnaire thatasks questions such as the following:• How is this classroom different from ones

at home? How are teachers different?• What is most difficult about being a stu-

dent with a teacher and classmates fromanother culture? What do I like about it?

• What is something I learned about one ofmy classmate’s culture? What do I wantto learn next?

• What is something I have learned aboutU.S. culture? What do I want to learnnext?

• What skills do I have that help me com-municate with people from other cultures?

• How can I use this information to help mein future courses?

Guidelines for GettingStarted

As I hope this article has shown, buildingcultural community is a multidimensionaleffort that occurs within the overall class-room experience. It is unlikely that a singlechecklist or set of activities will work inevery classroom. Nonetheless, there are someguidelines that one can use regarding curricu-lum content, activities, and classroom climatethat will contribute to building cultural com-munities in intercultural classrooms.

CurriculumThe first decision concerns curriculum. I

recommend using content- or theme-basedlessons because covering a subject in depthcan help teachers put what is being taughtinto a personal context for students, animportant component of community building(Wurzel & Fischman). Content-rich instruc-tion also encourages meaningful exchangesof ideas. Thus, students can learn about atopic and learn how to learn about a topicfrom others with different worldviews.Sample topics might include affirmativeaction, alternative medicine, and the U.S.civil rights movement. When planning cur-riculum, I recommend selecting topics andmaterials that will allow students to• work face-to-face in pairs, small groups,

and whole-class exchanges;• collaborate on problem-solving activities;• give reactions to and opinions about key

issues;• debate key concepts;• think critically about issues;• share cultural assumptions;

• learn about cultural variation within andacross societies;

• learn about cultural dominance in a het-erogeneous society like that of the UnitedStates;

• do academic assignments typicallyexpected in U.S. classes, like summaries,case studies, essay tests, and researchpapers; and

• share cultural assumptions about suchacademic assignments, U.S. classroominstruction, and academic expectations.

ActivitiesThere are numerous activities that can beintegrated into the curriculum to promote

cultural community. The campus clubproject mentioned earlier in this articleis one such example. The followingactivities have also been used suc-cessfully in our program:• Pairs of students from different

cultural backgrounds were askedto make a hypothesis about U.S.students or U.S. society. Oneteam, for example, hypothesizedthat U.S. students are very infor-mal in the classroom. Anothersaid that U.S. society is very reli-

gious. The pairs had to interviewseveral U.S. students and teachers

and then give a written or oral reportsupporting or refuting their hypothesis.

• After reading an article on Rosa Parks andthe 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery,Alabama, students were asked to writetwo opinion questions. The teacher pairedstudents by different cultural back-grounds. Students had to explain theirquestions to their partner if they wereunclear. The pairs wrote answers to eachothers’ questions and then got together todiscuss them.

• In a unit on language issues, studentslearned about a dyslexic student’s traumaof trying to keep up in school because ofhis difficulty with reading. At the end ofthe unit, students grouped into teams ofthree. Each team was given a test of 10short-answer questions based on whatthey had learned about dyslexia in class.Each team could decide how to take thetest. For instance, students could divide upthe questions, with each person answeringthree or four. Or the team could discusseach question together and write a singleresponse to each one. Each person on theteam received the same grade for the test.

• In an international teaching assistant train-ing course, students listened to a tapedlecture on marketing by a professor. Theclass was asked to critique the lecture,

As a first step in

community building,

teachers can begin by

giving up some control

in the classroom and

sharing power with

students.

30 TESOL Journal

indicating segments they felt were incom-plete, vague, or even incorrect. Studentshad to help each other identify weak-nesses in the lecture style and contentbased on their understanding of U.S.expectations for good oral presentations.Not every lesson has to focus on cultural

understanding to achieve it. However, it isimportant to make cultural awareness an inte-gral part of curriculum planning. As theseactivities illustrate, lessons can incorporateintercultural communication into otherimportant language-learning activities, suchas practicing reading and writing strategies,learning vocabulary, exercising critical think-ing, and building oral fluency. Community-building tasks, therefore, do not have to bethought of as using up valuable class time;they can easily be included in core curricu-lum goals. Another issue related to activitiesconcerns sequencing. To achieve community,students and teachers participate in tasks thatrequire varying degrees of self-disclosure. Bystarting early in the semester with activitiesthat are less threatening, students graduallycan work up to those that require more risk asthe group’s level of trust builds. So, at thebeginning of the semester, students might beasked to work in pairs. By midsemester, theymight be ready to take a test in small groups.Near the end of the semester, they might bewilling to share what was difficult aboutbeing a student in this class.

ClimateFinally, there are some characteristics of

classroom climate that can, I believe, facili-tate community building:• Help students get to know each other,

including each other’s names and coun-tries.

• “Acknowledge the existence of culturalvariation in the classroom, including stu-dents own cultural assumptions aboutteaching and about the subject matter”(Wurzel & Fischman, 1995, p. 57).

• Impress upon students that they are agroup with common goals, for example, toimprove their English-language skills, tolearn about U.S. academic expectations;and to understand cultural assumptionsand values underlying course content andassignments. They will be better able toachieve these goals as individuals if theywork on them as a team, sharing knowl-edge, ideas, and beliefs as they workthrough the content matter.

• Build a feeling of mutual trust amongclass members. Share your own opinions,beliefs, and values related to course con-tent or U.S. academic expectations.Enthusiastically reward students for even

modest attempts to do the same.Encourage them to ask questions aboutlessons or expectations you have regard-ing academic performance. Be curiousabout students’ cultural assumptions inthese areas.

ConclusionTaking time to build cultural community

is definitely rewarding. It empowers studentsto understand their role in an interculturalclassroom and teaches them strategies fordeveloping successful social skills in that set-ting. It also provides a means for managingdifferences which can arise in the learningprocess. Furthermore, it helps newly arrivedstudents adapt to a new educational system.Finally, the process of building communityoffers students the chance to develop anunderstanding of and appreciation for thosewho see the world differently. By extension,students also learn more about themselves asthey clarify and, at times, defend their ownvalues, opinions, and beliefs. When askedwhat was most difficult about learning in anintercultural classroom in the end-of-semester questionnaire, one studentresponded, “The most difficult thing is thecommunication. Language is a problem.However, cultural background is a biggerproblem because students from differentcountries have different perspectives. It’shard to communicate when you have to con-sider what you say is proper for everyone.”

Wurzel and Fischman (1955) eloquentlyclaim that a “classroom should not be a busfull of strangers. It should be a place toopenly express perceptions and misunder-standings. It should be a place where teachersuncover their humanity, where cultural stylesare respected and perhaps most importantlywhere hidden cultural values can safely min-gle” (p. 55). By building cultural communityinto our curriculum systematically, we havethe best chance of achieving that noble goal.

ReferencesAlthen, G. (1988). American ways: A

guide for foreigners in the United States.Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.

Bassano, S., & Christison, M. A. (1995).Community spirit: A practical guide to col-laborative language learning. San Francisco,CA: Alta Book Center.

Bennett, M. J. (1993). Towards ethnorela-tivism: A developmental model of intercul-tural sensitivity. In R. M. Paige (Ed.),Education for the intercultural experience(pp. 21-71). Yarmouth, ME: InterculturalPress.

Blanton, L. L., & Lee, L. (1995). The mul-ticultural workshop: A reading and writing

program. New York: Heinle & Heinle.Fantini, A. E. (1997). Language: Its cul-

tural and intercultural dimensions. In A.Fantini (Ed.), New ways in teaching culture(pp. 3-15). Alexandria, VA: TESOL.

Gudykunst, W. B. (1991). Bridging differ-ences: Effective intergroup communication.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Hess, J. D. (1994). The whole world guideto culture learning. Yarmouth, ME:Intercultural Press.

Hofstede, G. (1986). Cultural differencesin teaching and learning. InternationalJournal of Intercultural Relations, 10, 301-320.

Johnson, R. (1997). A case for theIntercultural Communication Course in theMA TESOL Program. The TESOLIntercultural Communication Interest SectionNewsletter, 1(1), 1-2.

Johnson, R. (1995). ESL teacher educa-tion and intercultural communication:Discomfort as a learning tool. TESL CanadaJournal, 12(2), 59-68.

Reid, J. M. (1995/1996,December/January). Let’s put the “t” back inTESL/TEFL programs [President’s mes-sage]. TESOL Matters, p. 3.

Stewart, E., & Bennett, M. (1991).American cultural patterns: A cross-culturalperspective(Rev. ed.). Yarmouth, ME:Intercultural Press.

Winskowski-Jackson, C. (1991).Evaluation of culture components in ESLprograms. In M. C. Pennington (Ed.),Building better English language programs:Perspectives on evaluation in ESL (pp. 98-117). Washington, DC: NAFSA: Associationof International Educators.

Wurzel, J., & Fischman, N. K. (1995). Adifferent place: The intercultural classroom[Two-part training video and instructionalguide]. Newtonville, MA: InterculturalResource Corporation.

AuthorMargaret Coffey is a senior language spe-

cialist at the Applied English Center,University of Kansas, in the United States,and was the founding chair of TESOL’sIntercultural Communication InterestSection. Her research focuses on the role ofintercultural communication in English lan-guage programs. She coauthoredIntercultural advising in English-languageprograms (NAFSA, 1997) with Susan Grace.

d