Ryan Pearmain
COMM-2150-005
Community Partner
To accomplish my service learning project for this class, I decided to volunteer at the
English as a Second Language Lab at the Taylorsville Campus of Salt Lake Community College.
Here is the contact information:
Lidya Gonzales
ESL Lab Coordinator
English as a Second Language Lab
Salt Lake City Community College
TB 213 F
Phone: 801-957-4026
Email: Lidya.gonzalez@slcc.edu
Project
The entire purpose of the ESL Lab is “to help English as Second Language Students
develop their English language skills to succeed at school and to be employable after graduation
for Salt Lake Community College” (Gonzoles, 2011). This goal is accomplished in several ways.
The first and most common, is by one-on-one time and tutoring between an ESL student and an
English speaking student. Another way the ESL Lab succeeds is with an ESL class, specifically
for ESL students to learn collectively with the help of tutors in group discussions. During my
project, I was able to experience both methods of tutoring. A normal day of service would
include sitting down with my student, edit their papers or to help them read a short story or
article and then do a quiz following the reading. If my student wasn’t present, I would either
work with another student to tutor or had the option of going to the ESL class.
My main student that I tutored was Elie Kwizera from Rwanda in East Africa. Elie had
graduated High School from Rwanda and had come to Utah to complete his education. His main
goal was to become a computer engineer and he felt that the best way to complete this goal was
to come to the United States to benefit from a higher quality of education. He already arrived in
America with a good foundation of English, but was in the classes Reading 900, and Writing
900.
Culture Group
During this project, I encountered several different cultures and also different viewpoints
within these cultures. Elie is an immigrant from Rwanda in East Africa which is in a balance
between individualism and collectivism. He is single male and is a student in college. His
religious background is Christian with very heavy influences of the native religions found there.
Challenges
There were very many challenges that I had to overcome in this project. The first
challenge that I had to deal with was the different role I was placed in the culture of education. I
have been within this particular culture practically my entire life. However, I had always been
the student and the one taught. In the ESL Lab, I had to fill the role as the instructor. I was given
the responsibility to instruct Elie in how to use English grammar correctly. That was a lot of
mounted pressure and responsibility placed upon me.
Another struggle that occurred during my project was being able to communicate with
Elie by sharing things that we had in common. It was very difficult to allow Elie to express
himself in what he enjoyed or disliked and was difficult to try to make connections with each
other instead of me being his tutor and him filling the role as pupil.
Theory
The Communication theory that I decided to apply to my service learning project was the
Relational Dialectics theory by Leslie Baxter. This is often known as the dialectical approach.
The dialectical approach is “an approach to intercultural communication that integrates
[different] approaches…in understanding culture and communication. It recognizes and accepts
that…approaches are interconnected and sometimes contradictory” (Martin & Nakayama, 2010,
p. 71). This explains that when individuals communicate, they communicate differently
depending upon who they communicate with, the context of the conversation, etc., and must be
used when communicating with individuals from different cultures than one’s own. However,
this is “not a specific theory to apply to all aspects of intercultural communication” (Martin &
Nakayama, 2010, p. 76) but is a general theory applying other theories to intercultural
communication. This theory developed by Baxter covers three general areas of communication.
The first is the processual or “how interaction happens rather than to the outcome”
(Martin & Nakayama, 2010, p. 72) of intercultural communication. This focuses on how cultures
and people change overtime. When individuals are communicating between different cultures, it
is important to remember the culture they are from while at the same time, aware that the other
person is an individual with their own unique qualities. The second is that studying a different
culture includes studying communication within that culture and to build relationships. The third
is to allow the contradictions that occur in communicating and holding on to ideas that
paradoxical.
There are six different general dialectics:
1) Cultural-Individual Dialectic: The dialectic dealing with the differences and
similarities in the relationship of an individual with the culture(s) they derive from.
They share communication styles and customs from their own culture but have other
unique and individual communication styles for themselves.
2) Personal-Contextual Dialectic: The dialectic of the context an individual or
communication takes place and the individual. The individual still retains their
personal integrity, but must alter how they communicate depending upon the
environment and social roles they must fill.
3) Differences-Similarities Dialectic: The dialectic of remembering that “intercultural
communication is characterized by both similarities and differences” (Martin &
Nakayama, 2010, p. 74) between people’s values, beliefs, and how they
communicate.
4) Static-Dynamic Dialectic: The dialectic that there are constant cultural
communications of ideas but that these communications shift to other cultures and/ or
change in tone or message.
5) History/Past-Present/Future Dialectic: The dialectic of retaining and understanding
the history between cultures to comprehend the present circumstances and to
influence future communication between cultures.
6) Privilege-Disadvantage Dialectic: The dialectic discussing how individuals may have
different advantages and disadvantages within their own culture. The same can be
said for entire cultures as well.
Analysis
This theory was very interesting to see it tested in my service learning project. I decided
after selecting this theory to select three dialectics to see if they were true. To my amazement,
they actually worked.
The first one that applied to tutoring Elie was the Personal-Contextual Dialectic.
Throughout my project, I found it very hard to teach because of the context of the situation. Both
Elie and I were from the same culture of education and that we were both students. However,
despite this, I was thrown into a new position within the culture of education but in the position
of the instructor. I therefore had to change the way I communicated and presented myself to Elie
as a teacher and someone who could help him with whatever he needed help with. I discovered
this on my second day at the ESL Lab. It was my first day tutoring Elie and I was making all of
the grammatical corrections for him and found myself writing the paper for him. That was what I
was accustomed to. However, after Elie left, Lydia came and talked with me and told me to
reread the manuals. I then discovered that I had to help Elie learn, not to do the work for him.
The second dialectic I tested was the Static-Dynamic Dialectic. When I had to work with
Jane one day, I had to change my tone and how I helped. With Elie, it was very easy for me to
communicate ideas of how to help him while Jane was very difficult. She did not complete or
even attempt her homework from before. We were still in the context of the ESL Lab and
education, but I had to enforce my role of the instructor and how she needed to do her work for
herself. This shows the dialectic because I still had to convey my instructions but the tone of my
message had to be coded with a greater amount of authority.
The last dialectic I tested was the Differences-Similarities Dialectic. I had just recently
received my mission call to Sierra Leone in West Africa and I shared this with Elie. Although he
is from East Africa, it was Africa and he got very excited. We continued to discuss some of the
food from his country and he explained Cassava to me which I had no idea what it was. He then
explained it to me as a plant and showed me an article on it. It turns out that I knew cassava as
tapioca. During that same time, when we discussed our names, I saw the differences between our
two cultures but yet we respected each other for the contrasts between us. When Elie and I
discussed similarities between us as individuals and culturally, instructing became easier for me
and we both got along very well after that. I found that when individuals from different cultures
find something comparable, communication efficiency increases and the relationship grows.
Reflection
At the beginning of the semester, I was not looking forward to this project even before I
began tutoring Elie at the ESL Lab. It required a lot of my time (or so I supposed before actually
tutoring) and effort. Even at the beginning, I felt discouraged with being unsuccessful and failing
my first time tutoring. I felt enormous responsibility on my shoulders to be the best tutor I could
be. Near the end of my project however, my attitude changed from dreading tutoring, to actually
looking forward and forlornly at the end of the project.
I have learned a lot about myself and more importantly, how to communicate more
efficiently with others. I consider this service project as a good experience for my mission
coming up; especially for it being located in West Africa. Learning to communicate between
cultures is becoming a necessity in the modern world thanks to globalization and other causes.
After tutoring in the ESL Lab, I now have more confidence in my communication
abilities with others by understanding that there is more to communicating than simply asking
“how are you?” and “good. You?” Conversations along those lines go nowhere quickly. I learned
the most from the Difference-Similarities Dialectic that it is critical in communicating to notice
similarities take advantage of them to have a meaningful conversation.
I wish I had more opportunities to communicate and to find out more about Elie and who
he was as an individual. Unfortunately, one hour a week is not enough time to truly know a
person. However, these experiences have given me and refine my communication skills to the
level that I am at now and will hopefully grow in the future.
References
Gonzoles, L. (2011). ESL Lab brochure.
Martin, J. N. & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Chapter 2/ The History of the Study of Intercultural
Communication. Intercultural Communication in Contexts (5th ed.) (pp. 71, 72, 74, 76).
Boston: McGraw Hill.