Service Learning Paper

Submitted By:

Ian McCaulley

Submitted To:

Tamra K. Phillips, M.S.

COMM 2150-401-F17

Department of Communication

Salt Lake Community College

Service Organization

For this assignment, I opted to volunteer in an English as a Second Language classroom, taught

by Louise Brown. Her contact information is available below:

Louise Brown

ESL Instructor

Phone: 801-558-5308

Email: ulouisebrown@msn.com

Project

In this this class, students already have a fairly basic grasp of English, and the goal of the class is

to teach students how to speak more effectively in English, so that they can succeed in school

and life. To this end, Mrs. Brown covered the basic cadence of English, as well as figurative

language, and the use of emphasis for meaning. In addition to the teaching, she incorporates

practical elements, including conversations, fun exercises, and listening to native English

speakers read.

This is where I came in. I would read phrases and sentences from the PowerPoint slide, in

a normal speaking voice, so that the students could hear what I was saying, and read along on the

screen. Because of my existing class schedule, I couldnt be there for the first half of the class,

when conversations were to take place. Despite this, I managed to talk to some of the students

during the exercises, and take in some of the lectures. The exercises were designed to get

students into groups, so they would have to talk to get the exercise done, and were designed to be
fun, and set the participants at ease as they learned. The groups were set up so that students were

not working with others from their own culture, so that they had to speak English to each other.

This let them practice proper English pronunciation in a fun way, and I got to participate in some

of the exercises. I also got to help with computer problems.

Cultural Groups

Most of the students were Hispanic, mainly hailing from Mexico and Peru. There were

also several Asians, from Japan, China, South Korea, and Vietnam. This meant that most of the

cultures represented in the class were of a collectivist nature (Country Comparison), in stark

contrast to my own individualistic culture. Many of the Hispanic students were older than me,

and had children of their own, while the Asian students were my own age, with the exception of

Kiem, a man from Vietnam who is in his eighties. I also got to work with Javier, an outgoing

Peruvian landscaper in his forties.

Challenges

I have a class at South City Campus from nine A.M. to nine-fifty A.M., which conflicts

with the ESL class starting time of nine A.M., at the Redwood Campus. This caused me to miss

the conversation portion of the class, because I had to drive from South Salt Lake City to

Taylorsville, so I only caught about the last half of the class. Also, since it only took place on

Fridays, I had difficulty getting enough hours for the assignment, since I only got about an hour

and a half in-class per week, on average. In addition, my inclination towards shyness made me

somewhat reticent to talk to people at first.

Theory

For this assignment, I decided to utilize Stella Ting-Toomeys Face Negotiation Theory.

This theory focuses on humans concern with having a sense of positive self-worth, termed

face in the theory (Martin & Nakayama, 56). Face is a universal part of human experience,

existing among all people, across all cultures (Martin & Nakayama, 56).

Face Negotiation, from which the name of the theory derives, is the process of protecting

ones face, by the use of various face maintenance strategies. These strategies are broken down

into two archetypes; face-threatening strategies, and face-honoring strategies (Phillips, 2017).

Face-threatening strategies come in two distinct types:

Face-saving is a course of action undertaken prior to an anticipated loss of face, to lessen the

anticipated damage to ones face.

Face-restoration is undertaken after an instance of face-damage has occurred, with the intent of

repairing the harm done to ones perception of self-worth.

Face-honoring strategies likewise consist of two varieties:

Face-giving is undertaken with the aim of restoring the face of another who has suffered loss of

face.

Face-assertion, much like face-saving, is undertaken before loss of face has occurred, with the

goal of preventing loss of face by the other party (Phillips, 2017).

Since loss of face is most likely to occur in the course of conflict, face maintenance is

strongly linked to conflict management. Face Negotiation Theory recognizes five different

strategies for conflict management:

Obliging is a strategy in which one yields to the desires of the other. As such, it is considered a

Lose-Win strategy.

Avoiding is, as it sounds, the avoidance of an anticipated conflict in its entirety. Because the

conflict never takes place, and is thus never resolved, it is considered a Lose-Lose strategy.

Compromising, probably the most widely known strategy, takes place when both parties give up

something that they want, in order to obtain something that they want more. It is considered a

Win-Win/Lose-Lose strategy.

The Dominating strategy consists of getting ones own way, at the expense of the others desires.

For this reason, it is a Win-Lose strategy.

The Integrating strategy, often mistaken for compromising, takes place when ones desires and

the others desires are both fulfilled. Because both get what they want, it is considered a Win-

Win strategy (Phillips, 2017).

While the presence of face and face-negotiation are constant across cultures, the preferred

strategies of cultures, as they engage in face maintenance are varied. Collectivist cultures, being

more group oriented, have a strong tendency to use face-honoring strategies. This is due to the

connection of the individuals identity to the group, thus tying ones face to the face of the group.

Individualistic cultures, on the other hand, tend to rely on face-threatening strategies. This is

because the individuals own face is of higher priority than that of others.
Analysis

By applying Face Negotiation Theory to my experiences in the ESL classroom, I was

able to draw interesting conclusions about cultural interactions.

It was enlightening to observe members of collectivist cultures when isolated from their

respective groups. At first, people of similar origins grouped together. The Japanese students sat

together when they could, and seemed most talkative of the Asian students, although speaking

very little; while the lone South Korean student, Hwan, did not speak at all in the beginning. His

silence was intended, I believe, to save face by avoiding the possibility of making mistakes in his

English. He remained quiet for most of the class, probably due to natural shyness, combined with

the fact that he was the only South Korean in class. It was notable that, during an exercise in

front of class, Javier was the one who got him to really participate. The way he did this was a

combination of face-giving and face-assertion strategies; in the form of say how well Hwan, as

an individual, would do, and how well they, as a team, would do.

Hispanic students were more talkative than the Asians, probably due to making up the

majority of the class and having a common language. They seemed to adapt more quickly to

strangers and include them in the group. The most striking example of this was Javier, who went

out of his way to talk to others and be friendly to them. This helped to bring Asian students out

of their shell more, likely because they were now part of a more talkative group, and staying

silent would have hurt the face of the group. This shows an interesting use of face-giving; using

anothers face-giving tendencies to get what one wants.

Reflection

I did not look forward to this project at all. To me, it felt like another commitment,

cutting into my time and reducing my flexibility. I also did not look forward to the extra expense

in the form of gas money. The part which I most dreaded, however, was the journaling

component. I did not, and still do not, like journaling; I find it boring and largely unnecessary,

not to mention difficult.

The scheduling, flexibility, and expense issues were not as severe as I had anticipated,

and I coped with them fairly well. The journaling component, I found thoroughly disagreeable;

and I do not wish to undertake such an endeavor again. Interacting with the teacher and the other

students was interesting, and made up for the extra time spent away from home. As of this

writing, I am looking forward to the final day of class, because everyone is bringing food from

their culture.
Works Cited

Country Comparison. (n.d.). Retrieved December 02, 2017, from https://www.hofstede-

insights.com/country-comparison/peru,mexico/

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th edition).

New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Phillips, T. K., M.S. (2017). COMM 2150 Intercultural Communication Course Packet.