Learning+Implication

Students bring who they are into the classroom along with what they have learned in previous grades. The items that comprise their culture are just as relevant to teaching the whole student as are text books and pencils. In the article, “__What are you and where are you from?" Race, identity, and the vicissitudes of cultural relevance, they indicate,__ “Culturally relevant teaching has emerged as a pedagogical technique to "draw meaningfully on the cultures, languages, and experiences that students bring to classrooms to increase engagement and academic achievement for students of color" (Dutro, Kazemi, Balf, & Lin, 2008).

Many studies have been done as what factors make ESOL student uncomfortable or inhibit learning in the North American classroom. Researchers have found that the reasons why ESOL students might not be open to learning are:

They may see students in classrooms teasing one and other in an “inappropriate” manner in their culture.
 * ** They feel uncomfortable with the classroom behavior of North American students **
 * ** They question the value of a professorial focus on discussion rather than lecture **

 In their, country student may receive information from a valuable and reliable source (the teacher) and rather than peers.  ESOL Students may not understand why the teacher is choosing to do activities that are not in the text book or provides information that conflicts with the book Again, ESOL students may feel uncomfortable working with just their peers because their culture views children as unreliable sources of information. Most North American classrooms have a curriculum to teach, but may approach teaching it in several different ways, which may seem disorganized to the student, as they move from grade level to grade level with in a building or even a district.  ESOL students may be uncomfortable in a classroom because they do not share the same interest. For example, the same emphasis that is on Soccer in seemingly every country but the US, may make an ESOL student feel out of place.
 * ** They query the professor's failure to follow the textbook **
 * ** They feel there is too much emphasis on group work **
 * ** They note a lack of lecture summaries along with an apparent lack of organization **
 * ** They share no common interests (e,g, sports, religion) with their North American counterparts **