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VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 1

#% INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

WITH SUPPORT FROM THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W. RICHARDSON FOUNDATION

Bringing Worlds Together: Internationalizing
the Curriculum Through Focused Interaction

Internationalizing the curriculum, student-centered
learning, values clarification, cross-cultural awareness,
writing to learn, and cooperative learning are all
important issues in education today. This fairly easy-
to-arrange exchange between a high-intermediate
English as a second language (ESL) class and a sociol-
ogy class incorporates them all; the basic concept can be
adapted to a variety of courses/levels.

Internationalizing the curriculum is not a matter of
inserting “international” courses into the curriculum,
but of integrating an international perspective into all
courses. One of the valuable attributes of the method
described here is just that: By matching internationals
with sociology students in small groups to discuss
family customs and issues, cross-cultural awareness
becomes an inherent element rather than an isolated
curiosity.

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Early in the quarter, a date was arranged for an ESL
composition class (17 students) to come to the Sociology
of the Family class (20 students) for a 50-minute visit.
We (the instructors) hoped to expose both groups to the
practices and values of family life in other cultures, to
give students practice with writing and thinking
through writing, and to give the ESL students greater
opportunities to talk with native speakers of English.

We divided each class into four groups, trying to
balance each group to include students of different
genders, races, personalities, ages, and national back-
grounds. In the sociology class, students worked in
these small groups to develop a list of 10 questions
about such topics as dating, marriage, sex, and child-
rearing in other cultures. In the ESL class, it was impor-
tant for the students to become familiar with the ideas
and vocabulary for the visit; students, therefore, pre-
pared by first responding in their small groups to the
Americans’ questions, then compiling a list of their own
questions concerning customs in the United States. In
addition, as a composition class, the ESL students
generated five family-related essay topics; each student
wrote on one of the subjects as a class assignment.

On the day of the actual exchange, the sociology class
brought refreshments for the international guests and
arranged the desks into four “tables” to create an
informal setting. Maps on the walls aided students in
locating the various nations represented. After a
cautious start, the international exchanges became so
lively that the noise level in the class reached record
levels. A number of conversations continued even after
the class was formally over.

The following week each instructor evaluated the
experience by surveying her class with anonymous
questionnaires. In addition, the sociology class wrote
about the visit for their journals, and the international
students wrote essay-style commentaries on the ex-
change. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive;
100% of the students expressed a desire to have addi-
tional opportunities to interact.

Some specific comments from international students
(English uncorrected):

“I was happy because we were acting as one
family.”—Lebanon

“We have had a warm relationship with our
student’s group—the idea of small groups
was great—the only problem is that the
meeting was too short, so we didn’t have
time enough to answer all the ques-

tions...” —France

“What I liked best was the sociology class
were friendly people. In my group we went
on discussing as if we knew each other
before.”—Somalia

“I’m surprised to know that American
students are talking about these problems
seriously. That’s good. In my country
people tend to avoid discussing these kinds
of problems. I think it should be
changed.”—Japan

“I found that meeting interesting because it
was the first time that I discussed with
American students about my society’s
culture and also theirs.”—Iran

 

 

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THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin

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