My culture (American) tends to prefer more personal space
than a lot of other cultures. On my mission in Italy, I observed this often.
People would frequently stand too close, or try to greet me by kissing me on
the cheeks, and to me that felt like an invasion of my personal space, at least
at first. Eventually, I got used to it, and I adjusted to the different
cultural expectations. Then I went home from my mission, and I got readjusted
to American personal space expectations. Last year I went back to Italy, and
was surprised at being bothered again when people invaded my personal space. I
think it’s interesting that we can adjust to different levels of personal space
expected in other cultures, but in the end what comes most naturally is still
what we were raised to expect.
In my future TESOL classroom, I could see issues of personal
space causing problems. I think the most likely problem could be my students standing
closer to me than seems comfortable, since it seems likely whatever culture
they’re from would have smaller personal space bubbles than I will have, but it’s
also possible I could have two students from different cultures that expect
different personal space zones, and that could cause conflict between my
students. If the problem is just a student standing closer to me than I find
comfortable, I think I’ll be likely to deal with it in one of two ways: either
I’ll just acknowledge to myself that this is an issue of cultural difference,
and I’ll just adjust mentally; or I’ll say something if I think it’s something
the student needs to know to successfully integrate into American culture.
Which option I choose I think will be based on just how close they are
standing. If it’s a minor invasion, I’ll probably just mentally adjust, but if
it’s a major invasion and I know they will make other people in America
uncomfortable, and not just me, I will tell them so they can successfully integrate
into American culture.
One other thing I should keep an eye on in the TESOL
classroom is class size vs. class space. Based on the reading, it sounds like
people tend to be more tense when their personal space is invaded for long
periods of time. If I work somewhere where the classroom is smaller, and there
are too many people, it could cause a tense environment if students feel their
personal space is invaded the whole time they are in class. Obviously, that
would be a less-than-ideal learning environment, so I should keep an eye out
for that. I think if this happens, one solution I could implement would be to
help my students get to know each other better as quickly as possible, because
people’s personal space bubbles decrease around people they’re comfortable
with.
Being aware of personal space issues will definitely be
useful to me as a TESOL teacher.
I loved what you pointed out concerning issues of personal space causing problems in TESOL classrooms. When I taught English on my mission we had a group of people sitting close to each other and none was bothered by it because it is social norm. But I can imagine the same arrangement would be uncomfortable for Americans for example.
ReplyDeleteI like how you have thought this out. Especially I like how you say you will help students get to know each other better as quickly as possible since this will reduce their personal space around them. I did not make this connection even though I have often had students tell me things about them and I tell them things about me at the beginning of class before starting into lessons. So now I understand that this is more than building trust and respect it also enhances learning because students will no longer have as large personal space.
ReplyDeleteI also think personal space differences could really become an issue in the classroom. I think something important is to just be aware of these. Since our first reaction when our personal space is invaded is so get aggressive or upset, it is important to try to retrain ourselves to not allow ourselves to immediately get angry with students who don't realize it is an issue.
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