Critical Incidents for Intercultural Communication - NorQuest College

Facilitator and Activity Guide4. My friend liked her class, but she felt that the teacherwas very cold. She said the teacher just taught grammarand never asked about the students’ families ortalked about her own.5. Mark entered his LINC (Language Instruction forNewcomers to Canada) class on the first day andintroduced himself to the class. The first lesson wasdesigned to work on all four skills and to give studentsthe chance to get to know their teacher. Mark beganby telling the students that he, too, was an immigrantto Canada and that he was going to share his biographywith the class. Their first assignment was to askhim questions and take notes about what they heard.Next, they had to write several paragraphs about himand hand it in later that week. On the day that it wasdue, all the students had done the work except forone. Mark asked her why she had not done her homework,and she answered that she did not need to knowabout him. Mark explained that the assignment wasdesigned to work on a variety of specific English skillsthat she needed to improve her ability to communicatein English. After that, she did not really participate inclass. She did her own work and paid attention onlywhen there was something that interested her.Facilitator and Activity Guide6. Sandra is a fun-loving teacher teaching in the LINCprogram. At the beginning of every course, sheexplains the classroom and school guidelines, includingthe rule about being late. After about a week and ahalf, one of her students started to arrive late for classevery morning. Sandra likes to treat things in a lightheartedmanner, and so when the student walked inlate one morning, Sandra said “good evening” to herand everyone laughed. Sandra had done this beforewith other students. The student ignored Sandra andwent and sat down. Sandra felt a little annoyed andso she asked the student about being late. The studentthen yelled at Sandra and said, “You don’t talk to melike that!” Sandra told her that she should apologizefor being late. Later, Sandra approached her privatelyand apologized to her even though she felt that thestudent should apologize first. The student also apologizedbut later stopped coming to class altogether.Page 54Critical Incidents for Intercultural CommunicationCritical Incidents for Intercultural Communication Page 55