Issues in Applied Linguistics

Observed speech and interactive behavior of American Hmong students who were attending a northern California high school indicate that Hmong student responses to teacher generated questions were often influenced by culturally based predispositions. In answering certain types of content related questions, these students relied on underlying cultural emphases (pervasive culture specific themes) which were sometimes different from those generally held by Anglo American students and teachers at this school. Because of these differences, Hmong students often provided answers considered "wrong" in academic contexts, although they were essentially correct from a normative Hmong perspective. Moreover, Laotian Hmong students, often described as "shy" by educators, were found to be carrying out normative cultural rules for demonstrating respect and deference to authority figures through silence. This "taciturn style" was evident during numerous open ended question/answer sessions as these exchanges occurred in classroom situations. Constructing answers on the basis of Hmong cultural agendas and remaining silent in classroom situations produced impediments to communication between these students and their teachers. Moreover, many teachers often did not recognize these problems as the result of fundamental cultural differences.