Creating Learning Partners: A facilitator’s guide for training effective adult literacy tutors

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

Review the handout.
Ask tutors for any examples from Activity C – Meeting ESL Learners that might fit the categories. You might want to emphasize any points that are particularly relevant to your community.
Conclude by asking tutors to put a check mark beside a few factors that they want to remember in particular.
Depending on the amount of time available, you can take the discussion to deeper levels by helping tutors explore the topic and suggesting strategies to help reduce the barriers and maximize the supporting factors.

Activity E

Culture shock

Culture shock is common to immigrants during the first two years in a new culture. Unless the learner has been here more than three years, the tutor will have to deal with this problem. Therefore, tutors who work with new immigrants should be aware of culture shock and have a few ideas about how to help their learners through this difficult time.

The hands-on approaches mentioned in the Coping with Culture Shock handout make the learning stimulating and enjoyable and they are directly relevant to the learner’s day-to-day life, both the positive and the negative aspects of adjusting to life in Canada.

The following information about culture shock is taken with permission from The More-Than-Just-Surviving Handbook by Barbara Law and Mary Ecles, pages 67 to 70.

CULTURE SHOCK EXPLAINED

Culture shock can be defined as the feeling of disorientation or confusion that happens when people move to a very unfamiliar place.

People who have moved from one country to another (or from one region to another) may have a lot of difficulty. Not only are they learning a new language, but they are also learning a very different way of life. Some people may go through phases where they feel frustrated and humiliated. Some of the issues could include:

Loss in status
Respected people with positions of power in their former communities may feel they are now labelled as “immigrants.”
Loss of established support systems
Times of difficulty (i.e., illness or financial difficulties) may be even more problematic when there are no family members or close friends to call upon for support. Feelings of isolation may result when a parent is required to stay home and take care of the children. Without a job (or the opportunity to take language classes), an individual with limited language skills may feel like a prisoner at home.