First, let me introduce myself: I am a teacher in her early 50’s and have been teaching English to adult learners since 1997. I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec – a multicultural city with a population of over 1,700,000 and a metropolitan population of over 4 million, making it the second largest metropolitan area in Canada.
The pandemic hit Montreal quite hard and the city was in lockdown a few times. Hence, March 2020- March 2022 were very challenging times for everyone.
Source: FlickrAt this point in time, the classroom environment changed dramatically and schools had to quickly adjust to an undetermined crisis. Teachers were asked to teach virtually and learn how to use technology quickly and efficiently – as class attendance depended on it. So, Zoom and/or Microsoft Teams became their new tool for instruction. How did this impact the socio-cultural dynamics of the classroom? It impacted the multicultural adult classroom tremendously, especially language classes.
This brings me to a familiar theory of Hall’s Proxemics. Edward T. Hall, was the cultural anthropologist who coined this term. In simple terms, he defined proxemics as “ the interrelated observations and theories of humans use of space as a specialized elaboration of culture” ( Hall, Edward ( 1966) The Hidden Dimension) . With the pandemic upon us, social distancing had become our new reality and thus, online communication was the only means of any form of social interaction and learning. So, there no longer was a need to navigate personal space in a physical sense and all the kinesthetic factors related to space no longer mattered. However, what became more prominent for teachers and students alike, was a heightened sensitivity to voice pitch, inflection and the speed of verbal communication- online . Silence became the elephant in the room – metaphorically speaking of course. Body language cues that were once understood in the physical classroom quickly became redefined in the virtual classroom. Teachers had to intuitively pick up and understand this newly developed form of nonverbal communication. This became the ultimate challenge because in a multicultural classroom nonverbal cues are delivered differently from culture to culture. For instance, if a student turns off her video ( she is a mother of 3 children) , does it truly mean there is disinterest in the class? What if a student remains completely silent during class, does that mean that the student feels out of place, uncomfortable, or just simply bored? Finally, the student who talks too much and takes up most of the classroom time with endless questions – is this student an attention-seeker or just craving human interaction and perhaps, just feeling lonely?
As a teacher, I have become much more sensitive to sound be it via the use of the microphone, voice inflection, background noise, etc and less sensitive to kinesthetic factors. Also, at times, I find myself lost in the nonverbal cues presented by students and risk misinterpreting their gestures unless they are willingly expressing their thoughts, concerns, etc… to me in private. Moreover, being of Italian background, I have always taken pride in the use of my hands as a form of self-expression. My hand gestures and unique facial expressions animated the class – this form of drama, if you like, had always been entertaining to some degree but also a tool for instruction. Story-telling was taken to the next level! In the physical classroom, interpersonal distance always got smaller and smaller as the weeks progressed because students gradually established connections with one another and felt safe and comfortable sharing, exchanging, and learning. Bear in mind, that for the vast majority of my students, English is in fact their third language. Finally, the use of time in the physical classroom is calculated quite differently than in the virtual class. In the physical classroom, we do not have to worry so much about technological glitches and so the flow of time is different. In the virtual class, everyone is always on edge, wondering who will be the chosen one kicked out of the Zoom session today or whose microphone will randomly just stop working etc.. The teacher always hopes that it won’t happen to them – I have personally experienced a few glitches and it had impacted the whole class session. Students felt frustrated that time was wasted.
Has Edward Hall’s claim regarding nonverbal cues changed? Is it still 90% in our virtual world? Or should teachers add another type of cue – calling it perhaps, a virtual cue?
I am not certain whether these changes are positive or negative. However, what is imperative is that we learn how to understand these virtual non verbal cues and develop a newfound understanding of proxemics. Hence, we need to learn how to appropriately use virtual space in a classroom setting – regardless of class size ( which plays an important factor). Taking this further, should we establish new facial/virtual expressions ( aside from the icons that are available online) that would be deemed appropriate and understandable during online classes ? Also, what is the appropriate speed of verbal communication in a language class- for both the teacher and the student? Last of all, we need to determine virtual personal space – when is it actually polite and appropriate to turn off our video and sound and still be considered part of the group? How often should students be sending the teacher personal messages during class time? What about students among themselves? Are there any boundaries when it comes to personal messaging? Lastly, how should a teacher handle loners – what do we do with students that refuse to work in groups online?
To recap, I have briefly outlined a few socio-cultural concerns regarding the virtual adult education classroom. These have been purely my experiences based on the instruction of 8 online classes during the time period from March 2020 – March 2022. Bear in mind, that the adult classroom (specifically a language class) is different from other types of instruction.
Regardless of the type of instruction, adult learners come into the class with many responsibilities as students, employees/employers, spouses, parents, and/or grandparents.
All in all, I have been grateful for the opportunity of teaching online and I look forward to developing a deeper understanding of how proxemics and the virtual classroom can co-exist.
Anna Panunto has a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters degree in Education both at Mcgill University. She has been an Adult education teacher since 1997 and has taught ESL, Business English, Academic English, and Communication and Cultural Patterns. She teaches at two schools and over the years has published articles on education and given workshops and seminars at several community centers. She is also a freelance writer.