Embracing Our International Students - Part One

Shannon Marcus | February 2009

We live in a world of international movement—a time where it is quite easy to travel from one place to another, and where our schools can send and receive visitors to and from many different parts of the world. For many of our Christian schools, this has led to inviting international students to come to our communities, live and learn with us. But what comes after the invitation? How can we as Christian educators provide the best education for our students, both local and from 'far away?' Welcoming international students in our schools is a manifestation of our calling as Christian educators to extend hospitality to all people, and an opportunity to change typical relations of power held between a majority and minority group, especially in school.

One of the great opportunities we have as Christian schools by inviting international students is to both demonstrate and teach hospitality. In their book The Gift of the Stranger, Smith and Carvill discuss the difference between diaconal and xenophilic hospitality. Diaconal, or good Samaritan-type hospitality involves helping an individual in distress, whereas xenophilic hospitality "is motivated by the eagerness to receive strangers first and foremost because they come from another nation and culture. With this kind of hospitality we graciously invite a foreign guest, a foreign tongue, foreign ways into our homes, lives, minds and hearts" (Smith and Carvill, 2000, p. 86). Hospitality is not extended in only one direction: international students can be a blessing to their hosts - teaching as much as they learn, to both their teachers and their classmates.

When a lack of knowledge or awareness exists about how one's actions influence another person, cultural mishaps can happen. We may isolate and hurt our international students by employing strategies that are not helpful, or that have not been examined through the eyes of an international student. Oftentimes the hurt or damage that we do as educators has to do with the power relations we exhibit in our classrooms.

When teachers do not know how to effectively engage a student or handle a discipline problem, they can end up ignoring that student or ignoring the behavior. This can be especially problematic with international students who are ignored simply because they are quiet and cannot speak up for themselves. Ignoring a student can communicate that they, along with their traditions, language, history and culture are not important to our school or our classroom. Jim Cummins, author of Negotiating Identities, explains that "this devaluation of identity played out in the interactions between educators and students convinces many students that academic effort is futile" (Cummins, 2001, p. 3). By not knowing how to help our students, we could be dooming them to failure.

We also run the risk of unintentionally communicating ingratitude and annoyance to our international students. After all, it is more work to have an English language learner in the classroom, and it can be argued that their presence disrupts the flow of the classroom that already exists. We are, however, called to hospitality and love, regardless of a students' abilities and cultural background. The negative messages we may communicate to our students are explained by Cummins as "coercive relations of power" (Cummins, 2001, p. 14). He further explains that a dominant power group "defines the subordinated group as inferior (or evil), thereby automatically defining itself as superior (or virtuous)" (Cummins, 2001, p. 15). This does not always occur in a blatant, intentional way. A group's inferiority can be communicated subtly, or even subconsciously by the majority group. The opposite of a coercive power relation is "collaborative relations of power" (Cummins, 2001, p. 16) where "students develop the ability, confidence and motivation to succeed academically" (Cummins, 2001, p. 16). They develop this success because they know they are being heard and their own identity is being confirmed through the teacher's words and actions.

Smith and Carvill explain these power relations using the writing of Susanne Johnson (1993),who talks about hospitality as a way to transform power relationships. "Hospitality in its deepest sense," Johnson writes, "is a willingness not only to receive the stranger, but also to be changed and affected by the presence of the other, not only personally, but also institutionally, curricularly, and politically." (Johnson (1993), as quoted in Smith and Carvill, 2000, p. 88)

If we practice this kind of hospitality, both teachers and students will learn as much from international students as they will from us. Students on both sides will be challenged to see the world through the eyes of an other, and can be changed as a result; our curriculum will become wider, including richer examples of the world in action. Practicing this deepest sense of hospitality means, as Cummins puts it, taking "into account where students are coming from and where they are going. ... The instructional force is on empowerment rather than disempowerment" (Cummins, 2001, p. 14).

Working to create classrooms and curriculum that not only respects but teaches and empowers our internationals students should be at the heart of our desire to welcome such students to our schools. There are many classroom strategies that could be utilized, always undertaken within a larger framework that demonstrates respect, love and an understanding of visitors to our school and to our community. There are also school-wide strategies to make these visitors feel welcome. For example, when school begins, International students could be paired with a welcoming, personable student who would help with finding classrooms, and who would introduce teachers and other classmates. Although a simple gesture, providing a 'buddy' to the international students communicates a sense of value and worth.

The issue of the learner's first language is at the forefront of many discussions about how to integrate international students into a mainstream classroom. International students are not blank slates when they arrive at our schools. They have years of prior knowledge stored in their first language, and by the time they arrive at our school they have a strong linguistic base to compare and analyze differences between two languages.

Instead of shying away from interactions in the first language, teachers should embrace it, and discern its use in day-to-day classroom activities. There is both a practical and a philosophical side to the idea of welcoming a student's first language into the classroom. Cummins promotes the idea of multiliteracy projects, where students of the same first language collaborate to write texts in both English and the first language. These projects can be adapted and applied to many different subject areas. By writing in their first language, students are able to communicate (if only to themselves) that they do have knowledge and that they do have the ability to write maturely. By collaborating with other people in the first language who are at various stages as English language learners, the students will speed up the communication process, advanced students will become teachers or mentors, and beginning students will learn in an environment that is positive and welcoming.

In a setting where there are not many international students, and thus not many in one classroom, the idea of multiliteracies can be adapted. For example, in an English class, an assignment is to read a novel and write a report discussing the themes and ideas presented in the novel. Typically all students, including English language learners, are required to read a book in English. It could be advantageous to have an international student read a book in the first language, so that they can read something they are interested in, and something that is appropriate to their level. The student could then focus on the writing component of the project, thus empowering the student to complete an assignment of which they are proud, and which is at their interest and skill level.

It is inappropriate to ask students struggling with English to hold off with their curricular learning until they have developed a certain level of proficiency in English. It is widely held that basic conversational proficiency can be achieved within 2-3 years of being immersed in the second language; whereas academic proficiency (language that is content driven and conceptual in nature) can take 5-7 years to develop. If students typically take five years to 'catch up' academically (to a moving target), their program of study must have significant adaptations without losing the integrity of the content. To ensure that the integrity of the course is not lost, teachers should collaborate with one another, with the English language instructor, and with their subject counterparts for suggestions and recommendations. Decisions about content should be made with care. Modifications made at the beginning of a program of study will need continual adjustments to meet the needs of the individual learner.

When Cummins writes about specific teaching strategies for mainstream English language learners he takes guidance from How People Learn, by Bransford, Brown and Cocking. They explain that a student will learn effectively under three conditions: "engaging prior understandings and background knowledge, integrating factual knowledge with conceptual frameworks by encouraging deep understanding, and supporting students in taking active control over the learning process." (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, as quoted in Cummins, 2005, p. 1). Cummins argues that all three of these conditions are equally important for English language learners, not only to have the best chance at academic success, but socially and emotionally as well.

The second part of this article will appear in the April 2009 Christian School Teacher. In the next part, Marcus suggests a variety of practical ways to help meet international students' learning needs.

Shannon Marcus is Department Head of French at Durham Christian High School in Bowmanville, Ontario.