TRAINING K-12 TEACHERS ENHANCE THEIR ESL STUDENTS' INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: TECHNIQUES AND STRATEGIES

Creating and maintaining an inclusive classroom climate has become one of the most important objectives in the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) in Canada. Specifically in British Columbia, diversity in ESL classrooms has been an essential component of students learning as a means to enhance their cultural experience. The challenges and rewards of living in an environment that embraces diversity are sometimes not understood by all students. In this regard, the development of the students’ intercultural awareness and ultimately of their intercultural competence has been the center of attention in many studies. The British Columbia’s school system provides ESL services to students whose primary language, or languages of the home, is not English. The objective of these services is to help students become proficient in English, to develop both intellectually and as citizens, and to achieve the expected learning outcomes of the provincial curriculum. The need to provide these services is imperative because the K-12 school population of students for whom English is a second or additional language has grown immensely in British Columbia. Because of this continuing growth, there has been a need to create a guide to provide K-12 teachers who have become involved in working with ESL students in their classrooms with some kind of training. At present, UBC Okanagan is the only post-secondary institution in BC that has implemented courses for ESL in elementary and secondary education which further prepare K-12 teachers in this regard. The purpose of this the paper is to present some of the strategies and techniques the Faculty of Education has provided K-12 'teachers to be' with, in order to enhance their ESL students' intercultural communication by simply recognizing and acknowledging the commonalities and differences in cultures in their classroom.