The summer after my sophomore year of college, I spent the summer working at a bakery in Mons, Belgium as part of my French studies. I had taken French in school for seven years before moving to Belgium, and I arrived feeling confident that I would impress all of my colleagues with my excellent language skills and create lasting relationships with my host family. 

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The reality was quite different. While my verb conjugation skills were on fire, my ability to carry on an easy back-and-forth conversation was pretty limited. Beyond my language skills, I kept making cultural gaffes, like forgetting to go around and give everyone at work the customary kiss on the cheek (known as the bise) before work started or saying “bonjour” to people a second time in the same day, which, as I was told, meant that I didn’t care enough to remember who I had already greeted that day. Beyond that, I had no idea how to politely refrain from eating unfamiliar and revolting foods, or how to refuse the unwanted advances of men on public transit. 

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Many foreign language teachers in the United States have experiences like mine, studying abroad in the target language. Other foreign language teachers have the experience of growing up in the United States as the child of non-English speakers or moving to the United States and learning English as an additional language. 

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As a group, foreign language teachers likely have more authentic experiences with being culturally- or linguistically-diverse learners than other teachers. Many foreign language teachers have the experience of being a linguistic or cultural minority either in the US or abroad. The following are five steps foreign language teachers can take to provide a more equitable learning environment for culturally or linguistically diverse learners.

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• Recognize culture as the soul of foreign language teaching

In many states, foreign language standards are broken down into listening, speaking, writing, reading, and culture standards. However, this is a false dichotomy, as language is a social practice. As a social practice, culture is an essential element of language teaching (Kapukaya, 2020). When I said “Bonjour” to people a second time in a day and my coworkers thought I was thoughtless and rude, the issue was not a linguistic error, but rather a misunderstanding of social practice. Therefore, our role as foreign language teachers is to help students understand the social practices in addition to the words. 

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• Celebrate a diversity of cultures 

Did you know that there are more French speakers in Africa than in Europe? French is spoken as an official language on all of the inhabited continents in the world. The French student experience should capitalize on this fact, and celebrate the diversity of French culture.  Intercultural competence is one of the key competencies of learning set forth by the European Commission (Griva & Chostelidou, 2017). Students learning a foreign language should have the ability to create connections between their culture of origin and the cultures where that language is spoken. Recognizing the diversity of cultures that speak one language can help students be more likely to recognize the benefits of having cultural diversity within their shared language as well. 

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• Teach students to build on their cultural capital

Last February 2nd, I mentioned that it was Chandeleur, the French crepe holiday. One student commented that it was unfair that Americans got groundhogs, while French people got to eat crepes, and we talked a bit about how crepes are made with buckwheat in France. A student in my class who was born in India mentioned that in her family, crepes are made with a combination of rice flour and lentil flour. Students asked her what Indian crepes were filled with, and we ended up having a really interesting discussion where this student’s experiences were related to French culture and where she was able to be seen as a cultural expert on her own culture (Ivanova & Petrovna, 2016). 

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• Use writing as an opportunity for students to reflect on intercultural competencies

Foreign language teachers often have students write in the target language (L2). Many students have writing journals, and the writing can be structured with prompts. Haneda (2005) suggests that students can help construct their identities as foreign language learners through this writing, and they can also use writing to reflect on intercultural relationships. Writing also allows students to organize their thoughts in L2, which can be beneficial for language learners who do not yet feel comfortable speaking extemporaneously in front of a group. 

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• Use L2 to teach about culture

One way to level the playing field for all learners in a foreign language class is to spend most of the time conversing in L2. When discussions in a foreign language class take place in the L1 of the majority of class speakers, linguistically or culturally diverse students can end up feeling left behind (Kapukaya, 2020). When the class is conducted comprehensibly in L2, all students are experiencing the same thing– making connections and constructing meaning in L2. 

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These practices can provide some first steps toward establishing equitable practices for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Teaching about culture is an essential element of foreign language education, and through celebrating diversity, writing, and the use of L2, all students can learn to draw connections between their cultures of origin and the cultures represented in a foreign language classroom. 

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References

Griva, E., & Chostelidou, D. (2017). CLIL in Primary Education: Promoting Multicultural Citizenship Awareness in the Foreign Language Classroom. Research Papers in Language Teaching & Learning, 8(2).

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Haneda, M. (2005). Investing in foreign-language writing: A study of two multicultural learners. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 4(4), 269-290.

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Ivanovna, A. N., & Petrovna, K. L. (2016). The new position of foreign language as education for global citizenship. Science for Education Today, (4 (32)), 7-17.

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Kapukaya, K. (2020). Multiculturalism and motivation on foreign language learning. Uluslararası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 4(19), 74-110.