The Correlation between Cultural Sensitivity and Cognitive Learning

Teachers are a vital element in educational efforts to improve learning in the classroom. This is especially true in English as a second language (ESL) higher education classrooms where diversity is rich and learning styles vary from individual to individual. In order to produce optimal learning, it is pertinent to be culturally sensitive and to avoid emotional conflict in the classroom. It is equally important to understand the nature of cultural sensitivity in relation to cognitive learning, and how different teaching approaches can be developed through instruction to help alleviate tension and improve learning in a culturally diverse society.

Cultural Sensitivity

To be culturally sensitive is to know that cultural differences as well as similarities exist, without assigning values such as better or worse, right or wrong, to those cultural differences. Unfortunately, and quite frequently, some educators may not identify the cause that lies behind the perplexed faces of students and fail to recognize that some are finding difficulty in understanding maybe even deciphering what is said and can become very frustrated. Many ESL students fear being labeled as slow or different, and may not ask for clarification. It is possible that in their culture, interrupting or asking a question is considered rude. Also, some educators who do not have much experience with diversity or teaching ESL, have the tendency to teach from the textbook and follow the guidelines of their course master or syllabus before they take time out to get to know their students. Perhaps they fear that trying to understand the needs of each of their students will reduce the allotted time they have to complete the text material or they may assume that foreign students, like the majority of American students, are in a hurry to leave the classroom and labor in other important matters. What they sometimes fail to remember that all students as well as everyone else, have an intrinsic need to feel safe and the moment they feel threatened for whatever reason, their ability to make meaning of new experiences and connect them to past and future experiences may become impossible by nature of how the human brain is structured. To elaborate further on this mater, a review of some literature on brain research and other empirical studies may help to clarify the learning process and the significance of language learning in correlation to the brain, and memory functions.

Principles of Brain Function and Evolution

Again, far from treating the brain or discussing a few of its principles through an evolutionary analyses, the mind and conscious experience are viewed as a monument of collective information gathered through ever-changing periods of time. Intelligence, in a sense, is the measure of the capacity for such constructions. Real objects in the world are perceived as constant or unchanging in time. This capacity to construct perceptual invariants eventually evolved into human capacity for elaborate imagery, language and culture. Even though not each of the previously mentioned concepts is fully defined, it is still possible to clarify the connection between cognition and the principles of brain evolution since the brain, for all the mystery that surrounds its function, is a tangible structure with many measurable features. (Jerison, 1973).

On the Evolution of Mind

Most of us think of mind as a second person in the head that knows everything and tells us what to do. The organ of the mind is the brain. It is then our task to identify the aspects of the brain that lead to its evolution. It is preferable to separate Darwinism from the evolution of mind simply because it has traditionally been a doctrine about phyletic history and the origin and change of species. Whereas in the evolution of behavior, there is evidence of correlated advances in our mental capacities correlated to external, not internal forces. Progressive evolution is sometimes evident to comparable degrees in the evolution of behavioral capacity or mind in distantly related species (Oakley, 1985). In other words, the realities that we know exist in the real world result out of experiences that have developed and evolutionized over time. We can make out of those experiences different forms and sorts of truths that may best accommodate our needs and desires. In the context of suggestive principles and second language education, students can learn to resist external forces that interfere with the learning process and be trained to adopt those that help to expand their memory capabilities. Human beings are consciously aware of comprehending external events and regulating organized interactions with the world through their neural systems. Because of this any form of neurological or emotional disruption may cause conflict and inhibit whole brain learning. (LeDoux, 1985).

Cognition and Whole Brain Learning (Right Brain vs. Left Brain) The major aim in understanding a brain based research does not lie in understanding the intricacies of brain functioning, but truly comprehending the vastness and potential of the human brain. Like all organs of our body (heart, liver or lungs) the brain is a complex psychological organ functioning according to physiological rules. Learning is as natural as breathing. It is possible to be inhibited by threat and stress and influenced differently by peace, challenge, boredom, happiness and contentment.

It is believed that the two sides of the brain differ in their modes of thinking. These two different hemispheres of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking. The image below illustrates the differences between left-brain and right-brain thinking:

Most individuals have a distinct preference for one of these styles of thinking, but others may be more whole-brained and are able to work with both modes. In the classroom, certain educators may favor one mode of thinking over the other, but this should not matter as long as our goal is to maximize whole-brain learning and reduce emotional conflict. We must design a curriculum that offers students the opportunity to express themselves in the classroom and give equal weight to the arts, creativity, and the skills of imagination and synthesis. Second language educators should use instruction techniques that connect with both sides of the brain. They can increase their classroom’s right-brain learning activities and eliminate conflict from cultural differences by incorporating more, patterning, metaphors, analogies, role playing, visuals, and movement into reading, writing and listening activities. Whole-brain teaching is an instructional approach derived from neuro-linguistic descriptions of the functions of the brain’s left and right hemispheres.

Alpha Brain Waves

There are four kinds of brain waves – alpha, beta, theta, and delta, – which are really descriptive tags for different wave speeds. Brain waves are measured in Hertz units (numbers or cycles per second). Delta brain waves are the slowest of all, 0 to 4 cycles per second. Theta brain waves, 4 – 8 cycles per second, seem to be related to drowsiness, creativity and the dream portion of the sleep cycle. Alpha brain waves run 8 to 13 cycles per second and are generally connected with a relaxed, yet, alert mental state, or shifting consciousness. Beta brain waves are the fastest, running 13 to 26 cycles per second. Alpha brain waves have always been present in our brain. They are of ten seen in profusion in the EEG’s (electroencephalograms) of the brain patterns of skilled mediators. EEG machines help us get an instant check on our particular brain pattern. These machines have revealed that mental relaxation exercises cause states of altered consciousness and the alpha experience. Unlike Lysergic Acid Derivatives (LSD) which carry you on its chemical wings, alpha consciousness that arises from enhanced alpha wave production, is very complex, yet very helpful in offering educators a deep insight in to the learning process despite classroom limitations. (Lawrence, 1972).

Classroom Limitations

Foreign students are limited to the English they learn and hear in the classroom because the majority are not always surrounded by people who speak the English language. They may have family members at home who do not know English at all. They can only practice in the classroom or to themselves at home. This process practically doubles the time and effort students need to learn the language and to feel comfortable at school once they have learned to adapt to their classroom environment. Generally, women are less daring than men in their adaptations to new environments. For example, observations of students who use English during lab or internet assignments reveal that they tend to benefit from listening and apprehend audio-linguistically a number of different utterances, whereas students who choose to isolate themselves from the new environment and reserve the use English to the classroom benefit less than others. This warrants a smaller chance of learning language audio-linguistically since most classroom educators are subject to both oral and written form.

Teaching Methods in English as a Second Language (ESL) Classrooms

The process of second language acquisition is usually predictable, but because there is a sequence of language development, individual learners acquire language according to their own timetables and sense of comfort within the environment in which they learn. Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of the educator to introduce students with some sort of relaxation technique in order to comfort them. For instance, if we predict that the majority of students are nervous during the beginning of a lesson, we may choose to play nature music in the background. Usually this is a mixture of universal sounds or a meditation exercise that may offer them warm thoughts about their past. The point is for students to learn, they must be stress-free. Or if we are teaching students how to think, analyze, and produce, we need to carefully select a relaxation exercise that will place them in a state of alertness. Elements of stress and anxiety can ultimately lead to failure, not only student failure, but to our failure to do our jobs fittingly.

Students of foreign language are being encouraged to learn and use a broad range of language learning strategies that can be tapped throughout the learning process. This approach is based on the belief that learning will be facilitated by making students aware of the range of strategies from which they can choose during language learning and use them. As stated above, neuro-linguistic findings about the brain’s language functions show that, students need to be engaged in active learning, hence making the functions of one hemisphere immediately available to the other. By doing so, the learner makes connections that tap both hemispheres. Also, whole-brain teaching is managing the emotional climate. When concentration is overwhelmed by emotions, the working memory is being overloaded. This reduces a student’s mental capacity or ability to hold in mind relevant information. Working memory is an executive function that helps to make possible all intellectual efforts that range from speaking a sentence to solving a math problem. By keeping the role of the working memory in mind, instructors may offer clear, realistic predictions of barriers such as, “improvement will show periodically” and progress will be become easier over time. This will help to relax learners rather than define the limits of their mental capacities.

By helping students become aware of their own thinking processes (meta-cognition), they will foster learning more comfortably and independently. Also, in whole-brain learning, imaging is seen as the basis for comprehension. It is essential to build on this connection and encourage learners to visualize, draw, and use drama as they develop new ideas, in order to retain them. It is very important for teachers and students to set common goals and develop new learning skills. An assumption underlying learning skills is that learning within a classroom setting is a function of generalized competencies that are used in other situations, not just those related to school. With relaxation, students learn to (a) be optimistic; (b) enjoy attending classroom sessions; and (c) retain a greater amount of information (Shuster & Gritton). Whole-brain learning helps students to become alert of their surroundings and offers the ability to process information and develop a higher level of control of what they have learned. The information will help the students establish a certain goal, plan ahead, and express themselves through reasoning and projection (Dewey, 1938). Ongoing assessment of performance, in order to adjust difficulty levels helps to avoid failure.

The Value of Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity is a fact of life in the U.S. colleges. In fact, our nation’s higher education system is one of the strongly attracts foreign citizens and educators must be prepared to work with them in culturally sensitive and appropriate ways. According to the latest report by the Institute of International Education, 586,323 foreign students studied in the United States during the 2002-2003 academic year (Wood, 2003). With this in mind, it seems that it would be helpful to learn to value diversity, than to wrestle with the universal and particular aspects of cultural differences. Educators should acknowledge the importance of the roles they play in eliciting and shaping the performance goals of their students. They need to recognize that the majority of foreign students, no matter how confident and intelligent they may seem, will not be able to learn if their emotions are not taken into consideration. It is not always obvious that a student is not feeling comfortable while learning and neither do educators purposefully cause a student to feel this way, but when it happens, students become frustrated and walk away. Hence, we must try to place students at ease and not ignore the importance of learning how to adopt teaching strategies that will help foreign learners and give them a decent, if not equal chance to achieve. It is equally critical to acknowledge that culture and emotions closely intertwine and it is the role of the educator to be sensitive and understanding of student needs.

References

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