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Q1: In the country you grew up in, are classes usually interactive? For example, when a teacher asks a question to the whole class, do students volunteer to reply? Do they freely ask questions to the teacher? Q2: Do students ever remain silent even after having been asked a question by the teacher? People in Other Cultures Part 2 People from a range of cultural backgrounds responded to the Ibunka Survey on this topic. Here are a few of their responses for you to read and think about.

COMPREHENSION 1

Read the responses and mark the statements true or false.

1

1

hesitate to ~ overall talk one-on-one with~ material

In my American high school, sometimes when the teacher asked a question that was too hard or too easy, students hesitated to raise their hands. But overall, much of the class was a dialogue between the teacher and individual students who raised their hands and sometimes even disagreed with the teacher. Being able to give an opinion was an important part of understanding the material. If the teacher asked a question and no one raised their hand, it seemed rather unfriendly.

Jeremy American, university professor, lives in Japan

True False

In Jeremy’s high school, it was common for students to talk one-on-one with the teacher during class

Jeremy felt that students who disagreed with their teacher were quite rude

2

2

3 Growing up in Australia, classes were always interactive. Students were encouraged to contribute throughout the lesson. I could freely ask my teacher for more information if I needed it. Also, students almost always answered when called upon by the teacher. It was very rare for a student to remain silent. If they did, it was usually because they were extremely shy or couldn’t answer the question. At that point the teacher would ask other students to help the student out and the lesson would move on.

interactiv be encouraged to~ contribute freely

3

Hayley Australian, study abroad advisor, lives in the UK

be called upon help out move on

True False

Hayley was too shy to ever ask her teacher for help

In Hayley’s experience, classes did not progress if a student didn’t answer the teacher’s question

Unit 3 I In the Classroom 21