Teaching Culturally-Appropriate Social Interaction to ESL Students

How do you turn down a date in another language? Can you ask how much money someone makes at his or her job in another country? How do you excuse yourself from a party when you have to leave early? These are just a few examples of situations that English language learners will likely find themselves in at one time or another. It is important that during the multitude of grammar and pronunciation lessons that students are taught that they are also given a chance to learn about how to interact in a culturally appropriate way in their new country.

One way to do this is to include formal and informal ways of saying the same thing in different situations. For example, when you arrive late to a very formal business dinner, you might say, "I'm sorry I'm late. Please excuse me" instead of, "Sorry I'm late. Traffic was bad." Students can do role plays that help them to practice these different levels of formality. The role plays can be less structured as they master the basic elements of conversation used in different social situations. This can provide some fluidity in thought and direction and more naturally emulate native speakers' communication.

Students have to interact with native speakers of English on a regular basis, and there is not always a dialogue to memorize that will help them get through potentially awkward situations such as turning down a request for a date. Incorporating some useful and polite tools in regular lesson plans to help students should they encounter such situations is vital to their everyday functioning in the English-speaking world. This can be done while introducing grammar patterns and new vocabulary to students. At the same time, students will be learning real-life ways to cope with social situations that may be not only unfamiliar, but unfamiliar because they take place in a different culture. It is one thing to say that one is bilingual, but this is not the same as being able to function flawlessly in another culture.

Paulston, Christina Bratt and Mary Newton Bruder. Teaching English as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures. Cambridge, Winthrop Publishers, Inc., 1976.