"Candidates know, understand, and use the major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to the nature and role of culture in language development and academic achievement that support individual students' learning." --- (TESOL, 2000)

"Candidates know, understand, and use knowledge of how cultural groups and students' cultural identities affect language learning and school achievement." --- (TESOL, 2000)

Firstly, I am fortunate to have lived in or at least stayed in many of the countries that our ESOL students come from.  I have lived and worked in Korea, India, and Thailand.  While staying in each of those countries, I attempted to learn the local language and was involved in some sort of immersion experience.  I know what it is like to be in a home stay.  I know what it is like to have to get around and function in a second language.  Moreover, I know what it is like to go through the process of acculturation and experience culture shock.  I have experienced it and I am familiar with its stages and symptoms.  I can talk to my students about it and even offer them strategies for coping with it.  I can even discuss the differences that they are experiencing and help them to better understand them and thus avoid negative reactions.  These experiences of mine overseas have been very helpful to me when teaching ESOL students here in the States.

Secondly, I have had the good fortune to have studied in a TESOL program that placed a strong emphasis on cross-cultural communication and culture and education.  I took courses in these subjects and had classmates from all over the world.  While taking these courses I completed ethnographic research on various cultures and studied how their cultures affected their acculturation into mainstream U.S. culture or schools as well as their English language learning.  I often find opportunities to apply what I learned from my coursework while teaching English as a second language.

Thirdly, I have taught students from most every culture and have done my best to understand their behavior and attitudes as well as how I must modify my teaching to accommodate them.  I have taught English in Korea, Thailand, India, and Mongolia, and, while working in the United States had groups that were at times predominantly Japanese, Colombian, or Arab.  I know the differences between these groups---more than just stereotypes.  And, my knowledge of culture, both etic and emic, has been very useful in helping me to understand my experiences with them.  In order to better understand my students I have even had bilingual research partners interview them in their first language to learn about their attitudes towards various teaching practices and perceptions of classroom events and interactions.  I have learned a lot about how culture affects teaching and learning while teaching English as a second language.

All of this first hand experience and academic study of culture and education has helped me to be a better language teacher.  I know that cultural schema is an important part of language competence.  I believe that, as a language teacher, it is my job to help them understand the cultural aspects of English communication and their interactions with English speaking cultures.  I also know that, in some cases, I may be one of the only native speakers of English that my students spend much time with.  For that reason, I believe that it is vital that I give them a good impression so they will in turn have a positive attitude about my kind and therefore be more motivated to learn my language.  I am their access, their cultural contact, and their model.