Presentation Title
The syllabus as a foreign country
Author Biography
M. Sue Sroda received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of South Carolina. She is currently an associate professor of English and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and Chair of the Department of English and Philosophy at Murray State University. She has 18 years of teaching experience in linguistics, language, and teacher training in the US and abroad. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras, was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan and has served as an ESL consultant for the US State Department delivering workshops to English teachers in Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Ukraine. Her areas of research include technology in language teaching, pragmatics, and second language acquisition.
Abstract
Even though international students—and sometimes instructors—come to class with a wealth of international travel experience and expertise, the culture, processes and policies of the higher education classroom can still be the source of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Instructors may be able to recognize the common problems that international students encounter when taking their classes but may feel limited in knowing what to do beyond providing a post hoc explanation of what went wrong.
This session describes a quick pedagogical technique for trying to prevent issues in understanding classroom policy and procedure on the part of both students and instructors. Participants will learn how to create and use culture assimilators—a classic scenario-based tool for developing communication skills in international travel—in classes. Assimilator exercises encourage students to overtly analyze college as “foreign” and thus develop strategies for success in their “trip” through the class while practicing problem-solving skills in context. Session attendees will analyze examples from actual culture assimilators, discuss scenarios and answers from syllabus culture assimilators, and brainstorm new scenarios for their students.
Session Type
Presentation
Learning Objectives
(1) Participants will understand and describe typical issues international students encounter in the higher education classroom. (2) Participants will practice adapting or creating culture assimilators to use in their classes to assist students in understanding course policies and procedures.
Start Date
18-11-2016 1:00 PM
End Date
18-11-2016 1:45 PM
The syllabus as a foreign country
Even though international students—and sometimes instructors—come to class with a wealth of international travel experience and expertise, the culture, processes and policies of the higher education classroom can still be the source of miscommunication and misunderstanding. Instructors may be able to recognize the common problems that international students encounter when taking their classes but may feel limited in knowing what to do beyond providing a post hoc explanation of what went wrong.
This session describes a quick pedagogical technique for trying to prevent issues in understanding classroom policy and procedure on the part of both students and instructors. Participants will learn how to create and use culture assimilators—a classic scenario-based tool for developing communication skills in international travel—in classes. Assimilator exercises encourage students to overtly analyze college as “foreign” and thus develop strategies for success in their “trip” through the class while practicing problem-solving skills in context. Session attendees will analyze examples from actual culture assimilators, discuss scenarios and answers from syllabus culture assimilators, and brainstorm new scenarios for their students.