In order to adequately teach international students, an ESL teacher needs to know about other cultures. This knowledge of other culture is called Intercultural Communication Competence. The more a teacher is around international students, the more she develops Intercultural Communication Competence. Here are the traits of an ESL teacher who has Intercultural Communication Competence:
1. Know American culture
The ESL teacher must have cultural knowledge of her own home country. For instance, if she is American, she needs to know about the basic traits of American culture.
2. Understand EFL teaching methods
The ESL teacher should have EFL experience so she knows how English is spoken and taught in different cultural contexts.
3. Use authentic materials for language teaching
She should know how to use authentic teaching materials to teach the target language. For instance, she can use a recording of actual native speakers having a conversation at a grocery store and then ask EFL students, "Where are these native speakers of English?" "What are they doing?" If teaching ESL to international students in the US, she can teach students about different American movies or listen to American music and ask ESL students, "What are the lyrics of the song! And you cannot look it up on Google!"
4 Be prepared to teach in all modalities.
A good ESL teacher is capable of using multiple teaching methods to impact cultural knowledge. She can teach using audio, visual, PowerPoint, and have students do web projects as well.
5 Curious about other cultures
The ESL teacher should be curious enough to learn about other cultures and respect the customs of other cultures. She can learn about other cultures by studying or teaching abroad, she can make the international cultures of her students a part of the class curriculum by asking students questions about their cultures. For instance, when teaching about American holidays, she can ask students what holidays they celebrate in their countries. My favorite is singing 'Silent Night' in different languages as most of my European and Japanese students have versions of this song in their own languages. I would have students sing the "Silent Night" song altogether at the same time. Lots of fun!
6. Be vulnerable and be willing to acknowledge past failures
The ESL teacher should be courageous enough to share her intercultural communication failures. For me, it was being evicted in France many times when I made cultural mistakes. I was shaking my hoop skirt when as I was shaking the hoop, one of the hoops caught on the French chandelier so as I made the downward motion to shake my skirt, the hoop caused the French chandelier to come out of the wall. Of course, I paid for the damages, but I was evicted and the French chandelier was replaced with a light bulb.
7. Respect other cultures.
I have always had a big respect and fascination for other cultures which is why I started teaching ESL in the first place. There is nothing like the experience of teaching English abroad to broaden one's respect for another culture.
8. Be open minded
Do not make ethnocentric, bold, and hurried judgements on different cultural ideas. For instance, French people eat frogs and rabbits. Some parts of Asia eat bugs. In the US, we do neither, so be open to the possibilities of other ways of eating besides American cuisine.
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