Cultural Influences on Group Learning in an ESL Classroom

Abstract

This study investigated the role of learners’ culture in their choice of learning preference. It took a closer look at how students cultural norms influenced collaborative writing performance. A survey approach was employed via a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews to tringulate the findings. Two Institutions were involved in this study, Institutin A comprised of Malay learners while Chinese learners represented Instituion B. The findings suggest that students’ learning is embedded in rich culture and attributes and as they interacted in their groups, they demonstrated positive values such as unity, tolerance, obedience and respectfulness. These values were more obvious among learners in Institution A. These leaners revealed that since young they have been instilled to practice and appreciate their culture and customs and this was seen in the way they interacted in the classroom. The students were sharing ideas politely and practising their cultural values even in the academic context. A few self-centred learners also changed their social behaviour from a selfish attitude to a more sharing and accommodating behaviour by the end of the study. At Institution B, some learners demonstrated positive values like unity and sharing attitude but they did not practice them throughout their group work. They were more individualistic and preferred individual work. It was apparent that the students’ cultural virtues transcended from the social to the academic setting and have become a part of their life. This paper concludes that cooperative group work is effective because of the students’ embedded values and culture, and that culture is a dominant controlling factor that impacts one’s way of learning and communicating in a formal ESL academic setting

Self-directed learning readiness of Indian medical students: a mixed method study

“…Culture is the set of meanings that a group in a time and place come to adopt or develop, and culture can also be regarded as how people think and address various situations/experiences which may be based on individualism, collectivism, or honor [ 11 ]. Culture is a dominant controlling factor that impacts one’s way of learning and communication in an academic setting [ 12 ]. In general, students learn attitudes, norms, practices, and beliefs even before being exposed to formal education.…”

Effect of Group Work on EFL Students’ Attitudes and Learning in Higher Education

“…Several studies have presented empirical support for the effect of group work on developing students' language skills (Holloway, 2004;Smialek & Boburka, 2006;Tuan & Neomy, 2007;Wichadee, 2007;Li & Vandermenbrugghe, 2011;Arumugam et al, 2013;Larcombe et al, 2013). Li and Vandermensbrugghe (2011), for example, investigated the effect of group work on a group of 38 international research students.…”

“…Finally, students' learning is improved and deepened. Group work was seen to generate a lot of discussion (Greenop, 2007;Li et al, 2010;Ibnian, 2012;Arumugam et al, 2013), lead to the construction of new knowledge (Tuan & Neomy, 2007;Li et al, 2010), help students understand concepts better (Hendry et al, 2005;Greenop, 2007;Al-Sheedi, 2009;Li et al, 2010), learn more (Holloway, 2004;Smialek & Boburka, 2006;Wichadee, 2007) and perform better on final exams (Meteetham, 2001;Smialek & Boburka, 2006). Students in groups support and influence each others' learning (Hendry et al, 2005), clever students help weak students (Smialek & Boburka, 2006;Tuan & Neomy, 2007), weak students start to ask more questions and ask for help when they never do in a lecture (Smialek & Boburka, 2006) and finally students become fully engaged in course content (Yazedjian & Kolkhorst, 2007).…”

“…Finally, writing skill was investigated by Arumugam et al (2013) who examined how group work affects university students' writing skill. To collect data they used a questionnaire, a pre and post-test and an interview.…”

Exploring Academic Writing With Grice

“…This was done indirectly, with the help of two carefully chosen journal abstracts, which were labelled Text A and Text B, and distributed more or less evenly to the class of 19 students. Working in groups of three or four, the students analyzed one of the abstracts (Text A, which was Arumugam et al [2013] or Text B, which was Beddoes & Panther [2017]), and then paired up with a student from another group, who had focused on the other abstract. The students compared notes and then (basing their answers on previous experience, and informed that there were not necessarily clear "right" or "wrong" answers) answered the following questions together:…”