MIER Journal of Educational Studies, Trends & Practices

November 2019, Vol. 9, No. 2 pp. 147 - 164

CHALLENGES AND EXPERIENCES OF EFL TEACHERS

AND NEWLY ARRIVED REFUGEE STUDENTS: AN
ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY IN TURKEY

Halis Gözpinar

The need within the Turkish education system to educate the overwhelmingly large
influx of refugees is becoming a never pressing issue. This present paper examines the
challenges and experiences of Turkish secondary school English as a Foreign Language
(EFL) teachers and newly arrived refugee students towards the current refugee-
oriented education. It also aims to gain suggestions from them to improve education,
particularly language education. This study was based on qualitative research. It used
an ethnographic approach and provided information by using multiple sources of data
in a culturally inclusive and multilingual environment. The participants were
eighteen EFL teachers from five different schools and eight refugee students. The results
indicated that most of the teachers had fears, stress and insufficient experience. They
also agreed that EFL classrooms were unique, neutral and safer places to encourage and
increase the active participation of refugee students.

KEYWORDS: English Teachers, Refugees, Secondary Education, Social

Integration, Teacher Attitudes, Translanguaging.

INTRODUCTION
Thousands of people are forced to flee their homelands every year out of
desperation, due to reasons such as poverty and civil as well as regional
conflict. Turkey, being a bridge between the east and the west, tolerates illegal
Halis Gözpinar
Research Scholar, Giresun University,
English Language and Literature Department, Turkey
Email: halisgozpinar@gmail.com
148 | Halis Gözpinar

immigration and remains home to the largest refugee population in the world.
The Turkish National Ministry of Education has revised the policies for
refugees and asylum seekers that are preventing them from getting an
education in Turkish state schools. During the year 2014, MoNE had issued a
circular which thus allows refugees to register with state schools (MEB, 2014).
As schools across Turkey are starting to diversify, the need within the Turkish
education system to educate the overwhelmingly large influx of refugees from
neighbouring countries becomes a never more prominent and pressing issue.
Schools in host countries facilitate the contact with members of the local
communities (Kao & Tienda 1995; Rolfsnes & Idsoe, 2011); provide a safe
environment; reintroduce a sense of normality; foster social, psychological and
intellectual development, and increase self-reliance (Arnot, Pinson &
Candappa, 2009; Bačáková, 2011). Specific places in school, activities,
friendships with children from similar cultural, ethnic or linguistic
backgrounds, and relationships with teachers help build attachments to the
school (Due, Riggs, & Augoustinos, 2016). But school settings that do not
require rapid language and cultural acquisition are considered to be the best
settings for refugee children in recent researches (McBrien, 2005).
The role of teachers worldwide in terms of their interaction with refugees
has been the subject of extensive research. Teachers have difficulties when it
comes to dealing with the complex social, psychological, and cultural
challenges faced by students, as well as when it comes to obtaining resources
that are tailored to their needs (Miller et al. 2005). Refugee student–teacher
ratios, student behaviour, the lack of resources, and socio-political challenges
put teachers under tremendous stress (O'Neal et al. 2016). Teachers
fundamentally lack both readiness and training (Clark 2017), and what's more,
they simply do not understand their students' needs (Windle & Miller 2010;
Yau 1996; Yu 2012). Moreover, teachers lack any interest in taking time to learn
about their students' backgrounds (Gagné, Schmidt, & Markus, 2017; Yau,
1996). Refugees experience racism at the hands of their teachers (Brewer &
McCabe, 2014). Teacher-centered instruction often predominates in refugee
classrooms, whereby teachers spend most of their time lecturing, as opposed to
offering their students the opportunity to ask questions or foster creativity
(Dryden-Peterson, 2015).
Turkish-based research aimed at identifying the professional competence
of teachers in terms of how they interact with refugee students also reveals that
teachers have difficulties in teaching them. Teachers do not have sufficient
training (Aydin & Kaya, 2017; Er & Bayındır, 2015; Saglam & Ilksen Kanbur,
2017). It is felt that their awareness could be better raised through on-the-job
training (Saklan & Erginer, 2017). They do not know what to do in situations
 Challenges and Experiences of EFL Teachers | 149
where they encounter communication problems with their students. A variety
of events (in-class activities, school trips, etc.) should be planned in order to
foster cross-cultural dialogue between the refugees and their Turkish peers
(Rengi & Polat, 2014). Providing special attention when it comes to educating
refugees is often met with little or no regard.
Moreover, teacher training curricula should include courses on
multiculturalism and multicultural education, which currently are not offered
even as electives in any Turkish teacher training program (Polat & Ogay Bakra,
2014). While a small number of pre-service teachers are sufficient when it
comes to cross-cultural communication skills, they nevertheless lack any sense
of empathy (Polat, 2009). Education that caters to the needs of refugees still
remains insufficient. It lacks the philosophy associated with refugees,
integration, and multiculturalism (Aydin, Gundogdu & Akgul, 2019).
Many schools seem ill-equipped to handle these kinds of issues, which are
connected with refugee students in Turkey. The refugee students in culturally
inclusive classrooms with their Turkish peers' experience language barriers,
lack of family support, culture clash, financial problems (Yasar & Amac, 2018),
teacher-centered pedagogy, and discrimination in school settings (Dryden-
Peterson, 2015). They also have problems with reaching information (Nofal,
2017), difficulty in comprehension, making communication, self-expression
(Ciğerci & Güngör, 2016), integration, lack of trauma-sensitive instruction, lack
of contextual knowledge, lack of school resources, lack of a learner-centered
approach, a wave of xenophobia, overcrowded schools (Aydin & Kaya, 2017).
The Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Turkey has increased its focus
on the need to strengthen teacher capacity to be responsive to the needs of the
refugee students and decided to develop an inclusive education teacher
training module (UNICEF 2018). In order to provide better education to all
children, this study aims to contribute to the government's response strategies
and action plans.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Education in emergencies should meet psychosocial needs and convey key
messages and skills (Sinclair, 2001). Schools need to develop an action plan for
recently arrived refugee pupils in the short term. Imagine that one day your
school's principal enters your classroom with a refugee student by her/his
side. What language would you use to greet that child? Turkish, Arabic,
English...? The student is likely to suffer from psychological issues due to war
and the trauma associated with it. The child has stumbled into a safe haven for
the first time. Despite the teacher knowing almost nothing about her/his new
150 | Halis Gözpinar
pupil, in many instances “a common language” comes to their rescue. This
language, more often than not, is “English”. The use of any language other than
English in such situations should be encouraged so that refugee students can
benefit from their knowledge of languages. This is the strategic usage of
multiple languages to create meaning and called “translanguaging” which
doesn't consider language as a mere linguistic competence. It incorporates an
understanding of how various modes add to the semiotic meaning-making
repertoire in order to maximize communicative potential (García, 2009: 140).
The role of foreign language teachers in such a situation cannot and should not
be underestimated—that is, at least until students gain a sound command of
the language of the host country. Multilingual students and teachers should
feel responsible to support refugee education at the school. It was hypothesized
that most English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in this research would
be ill-equipped to teach refugees and would be in a particularly good place to
bridge cultural divides and help refugee students. It was anticipated that EFL
classrooms would be neutral and safer places encouraging active participation
of refugee students and local students.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research examines the challenges and experiences of Turkish secondary
school EFL teachers and newly arrived refugee students towards the current
refugee-oriented education. It also aims to gain suggestions to improve
education for them, particularly the language education. This study is a
qualitative research using an ethnographic approach and was conducted in a
multilingual environment where the refugees have to acquire three languages,
namely Arabic, Turkish and English. In order to better focus on this topic, the
researcher has sought to answer the following two questions:
1. What are EFL teachers' challenges and experiences of their ability to teach
refugees?
2. What are refugee students' experiences regarding EFL classes?

SAMPLE FOR THE STUDY

The total number of refugee students residing in the province of Ordu, Turkey
is 1,060 according to 2017-2018 education year statistics. Their countries of
origin are as follows: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria,
Palestine, and Algeria. The researcher included the opinion of eight refugee
students (five females – three males) about their experiences regarding EFL
classes. The refugee students do not want to talk much because they think that
those who conduct surveys, interviews or researches are state officials.
 Challenges and Experiences of EFL Teachers | 151

There were eight teachers of English as a foreign language in the school. The
researcher also informed five head English teachers representing each school at
monthly provincial teacher meetings. The total number of English teachers in
those five schools was thirty-four. The researcher chose the teachers among the
ones who had a minimum of three (3+) refugee students in their classes and had
a minimum of five (5+) years of teaching experience. A total of eighteen English
teachers (eleven females – seven males), expressed interest in the topic with
great sensitivity, had agreed to participate in the study. Four of the schools
managed international school projects within the scope of Erasmus+ in the last
five years and six teachers have had an international experience. Teachers have
no knowledge of the mother tongues of their students (i.e. Modern Arabic,
Kurdish, Farsi-Dari etc.)

DATA COLLECTION
This present study is the result of the researcher's (2015 – 2017) teaching English
as a foreign language to refugee students at a high school in Ordu, Turkey.
Fifty-six refugee students were studying at the school the researcher was
working. The researcher was a member of the refugee integration committee at
the school. Thanks to five years of experience as a teacher of Turkish as a
Foreign Language (TFL) abroad, the researcher ran Turkish language trainings
for refugees as well and had a chance to evaluate their educational progression
through classroom observations, unstructured interviews, field notes, e-mails
and phone correspondence, face-to-face discussions, family visits, and casual
talks with parents, youth, and teachers. The researcher tried to obtain a broad
range of data from all of the participants. The education center for research and
development in the city Ordu also helped the researcher with the collection of
data. The study provides information by using multiple sources of data such
as:
a) Semi-structured / unstructured interviews b) teachers' committee meetings
c) field research d) classroom observations and e) small group discussions

DATA ANALYSIS
Evaluation of the semi-structured / unstructured interviews with the
participants and field notes will be the central focus of the findings. After
learning more about the teachers' experiences and challenges of their ability to
teach refugees, and the refugee students' experiences regarding EFL classes,
the researcher scanned, coded, and categorized the data collected through
multiple sources and then reorganized, grouped them according to themes,
and presented them.
152 | Halis Gözpinar

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

What emerged out of the analysis were two broad themes:
1. Teachers' Experiences and Challenges
The majority of the teachers agreed that they should keep abreast with trends
and developments in teaching throughout the course of their professional
lives. They think that they are not ideally responsive enough to refugees needs
due to a lack of prior experience as well insufficient training in this matter. Only
three teachers indicated that they had received special refugee education
training, thanks in part to efforts made by the MoNE in terms of providing
teacher training workshops and courses. They also think that teacher training
programs must be in line with international standards. They agreed that their
knowledge on how to approach and teach refugees will only increase over time
through on-the-job training. A few are optimistic about their refugee education
progress:
Extract 1
“I had felt unenthusiastic about teaching the refugees during their first few weeks as
well as during specialized training. Yet, after gaining bit of experience in working with
them over a period of time, my attitude had changed for the better and became more self-
confident.”
A few teachers mentioned that their positive, sensitive and appropriate
attitude may be a starting point for developing refugee students' capacity:
Extract 2
“We all should keep in mind that one does not always require words in order to make
him- or herself understood. A student's only expectation of their teacher is her/his
willingness to help as well as a smile on her/his face.”
Some teachers also think that MoNE should create a website through which
teachers from across Turkey can get in touch and share experiences:
Extract 3
“We should share our experiences with teachers including those who do not presently
have refugee students in their classroom. We learn best from each other.”
Some teachers also expressed that they had no knowledge whatsoever of their
students' cultural backgrounds. According to them, inter-cultural awareness
of the teachers should be increased:
Extract 4
“Teachers' degree of competence in intercultural awareness needs to be increased,
which would, in turn, contribute to their teaching experience.”
 Challenges and Experiences of EFL Teachers | 153

Most teachers also put the emphasis on developing culturally and socially
appropriate materials for refugee students. A few teachers also commented
that these materials should not cause their students a culture shock:
Extract 5
“I feel that teachers first should be familiar with the culture(s) of their students when
selecting materials, talking about culture and general topics. The student could
perceive what they are being taught in the wrong way and thus lose trust in her or him.”
Teachers also agreed that under such circumstances, implementing the use of
such materials requires extra time and energy, and could lead to the teacher
trying to avoid taking on any responsibility.
Some teachers mentioned that because the authorities spread refugee students
across various schools, this causes a few public schools and some teachers to
ignore refugee students:
Extract 6
“Teachers often follow their curriculum. We don't allocate extra time for refugee
students. If we accommodate additional time, host students are bored easily.”
Some teachers argued that teaching refugees' places too much stress on them
and they are unable to properly follow the teaching curriculum:
Extract 7
“I feel that these types of factors put tremendous pressure upon teachers and may even
prevent them from doing their jobs properly.”
One female teacher talked about an event that affected her very much. She also
thinks that it creates pedagogical dilemmas for them:
Extract 8
“Teaching refugees is joyful but also extremely stressful especially when you listen to
the stories and the challenges they have faced or are struggling with now. You often
remember these stories and have the same suffering as if you have experienced them.
You also need to think how you can deal with their severe problems.”
Teachers also put the emphasis on the administrators' strong leadership
strategy and their approach to refugee education in a constructive manner. A
few teachers have the perception that the administrator is placing an extra load
upon her/him, in turn, causing them to lash out:
Extract 9
“There is absolutely no logic in administrations occupying teachers' time with more
paperwork than necessary, when instead teachers could be focusing their attention on
carrying out their roles as educators.”
154 | Halis Gözpinar

According to the results, most teachers are ill-equipped to teach refugees and
lacking prior experience as well sufficient training. They concluded that their
knowledge will only increase over time after receiving specialized training and
gaining experience in working with refugee students. Teachers also argued
that this situation places too much stress on them. They suggested that
culturally and socially appropriate materials should be developed and
administrators' approach should be of a constructive manner.
2. English Classes are Valued Places for Refugee Students
The vast number of teachers agreed that refugee students' academic
performance and proficiency in Turkish level must be increased. According to
them, they are not able to attain the same level of success as other local students
although some of them are eager to learn. Some refugee students agreed with
their teachers and think this is the most difficult problem:
Extract 10
“I want to believe that my education is not temporary. I wish they implement programs
to support us.”
Some refugee students said that they want to localize themselves but think that
some teachers have to change their attitudes towards them:
Extract 11
“We want teachers to be sensitive to our journeys. We don't want to be treated as an
outsider but as a newcomer.”
Most refugee students mentioned how their English as Foreign Language
(EFL) classes help them in hosting community. A few students expressed their
positive experience in the following words:
Extract 12
“I will never forget the support of my English teacher right from day one. She had
included me into group activities and pair work in order for me to make new friends.”
One student also talked about benefiting from something of a similar nature:
Extract 13
“In English class I had put together a presentation showing people about the pre-war
condition of the touristic landmarks in my country. They immediately came to
understand how destructive war is. My classmates after that had started to
show me more respect and love.”
A few teachers also commented that refugee students are more successful and
more motivated in English courses. They also reminded the importance of the
variety of activities in English classes:
 Challenges and Experiences of EFL Teachers | 155

Extract 14
“Performing dialogues, theatrical sketches, storytelling, various group activities, and
the singing of songs, had somewhat lowered their psychological stress.”
They also stressed how non-language teachers who have knowledge of
foreign languages are just as important during this period:
Extract 15
“Students respectfully tend to flock around such teachers. Teachers who are unaware
of this fact are generally surprised by how happy they have made their students.”
These extracts suggest that teachers mostly follow their curriculum and some
refugee students feel ignored. There is an urgent need for “newcomer”
programs. Considerable burden rests upon the shoulders of EFL teachers.
Multilingual teachers should feel responsible too.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The Need for Turkish Language Training
Countries such as the U.S.A., the U.K., Canada, and Australia are well known
for their many years of successful refugee education (Aydin & Kaya, 2017;
Birman, 2007; Boyson & Short, 2003; Freeman & Freeman, 1988; Haynes,
2017). Turkey should also form “newcomer” programs which will provide
the refugee students with the opportunity to academically, culturally and
emotionally adapt to rapid change in their new lives through language
training and meeting fellow immigrants with common experiences. Refugee
students fare the best in school after they have acquired the academic
language of their new country and been accepted by their teachers and new
peers (McBrien, 2005). Turkish is the medium of education across all public
schools in Turkey. Refugee students are unfortunately thrown headfirst into
“normal” school classes with their Turkish peers without first receiving
intensive Turkish-language training, so refugee children cannot easily adapt
to it. There are Arabic, Kurdish, and Turkish language courses organized by
governorships, municipalities and MoNE, however none of them sufficient
enough to meet the needs.
Most teachers agreed that in the long term, refugee students need to
acquire the language of their host country (Turkish) in order to meet their
basic needs. The vast majority of refugee students living in the province of
Ordu continue their education at special Imam Hatip religious vocational
high schools because the curriculum is taught predominantly in Arabic. It is a
culturally inclusive and multilingual environment where the refugees have
156 | Halis Gözpinar

to acquire three languages, namely Arabic, Turkish and English. The

researcher was working in such type of schools. Refugees' problems tended
to be addressed the quickest in such schools where the number of native or
non-native Arabic-speaking teachers was relatively high. Teachers also
agreed that refugee students should be directed to such types of schools in the
short term.
EFL Teachers' Fears, Stress and Insufficient Experience
The majority of English teachers in this research agreed that their colleagues,
as well as most non-language teachers who have no/less knowledge of
foreign languages, currently view themselves as being ill-equipped to teach
refugees. Their insufficient experience can lead to misinterpretation of their
families' culturally inappropriate attempts to succeed in their new
environment (Hones, 2002; Lee, 2002; Trueba et al., 1990). Some teachers also
reminded that refugee students inform one another about their overall status
and their teachers. They also stressed that when teachers seem reluctant and
lack empathy, students feel unaccepted, which will cause them to skip school
(Hones, 2002; Lee, 2002; Trueba et al., 1990). Teachers should receive
specialized training to help refugee students understand the unique needs of
them (Henderson & Ambroso, 2018). The courses must develop teachers as
researchers, not just technicians and deliverers of the syllabus (Richards &
Renandya, 2002, pp77). Teachers in this research agreed that Turkey needs to
have its universities swing into action more and pre-service teachers ought to
receive more training in refugee education.
Most refugees experience three types of stress: migration stress,
acculturative stress, and traumatic stress (Adkins, Birman & Sample, 1999).
Psychosocial adjustment, language acquisition, repressed memory, trauma
experience and lacking support can negatively influence their academic
achievement and language acquisition (Finn, 2010; McBrien, 2005;
Sondergaard & Theorell, 2004). Teachers need to know how those children's
learning styles are affected by their previous educational experiences and by
any physical, emotional, or neurological barriers to learning which they may
have (Genesee, 1994). They should embrace refugee youth and provide an
education that meets the needs of all students (Prior & Niesz, 2013). Most
teachers agreed that all these create a challenging set of pedagogical
dilemmas for them. In order for them to get past such scenarios, Richards and
Renandya (2002, pp77) suggest that “teachers must be reflective, analytic and
creative, open to new methods and ideas.” Teachers have the same type of
pedagogical, curricular, linguistic and social obstacles and fears as their
refugee students (Karam, Kibler & Yoder, 2017). Excessive workloads and
 Challenges and Experiences of EFL Teachers | 157

challenging pedagogical dilemmas put an extra burden on the shoulders of

the teachers and create a stressful atmosphere as well as a stressful teacher.
This stress will affect their psychological well-being, teaching quality
(Harmsen, Helms‐Lorenz, Maulana & van Veen, 2018) and students'
achievement (Klusmann, Richter & Lüdtke, 2016). They will be more
vulnerable to the pressures of the situation (Gavish & Friedman, 2010). They
will have to overcome their fears and stress while helping refugee students
who experience the same. This could lead to the teacher trying to avoid taking
on any responsibility because they will have to cope with their own
challenges. As they develop their coping skills and teaching skills, the
problems decrease. Teaching is a profession that is learned naturally over
time, and the learning of how to work with refugees is no exception to that
rule.
EFL Classrooms are Unique, Neutral and Safer Places
Schools should develop an action plan for recently arrived refugee pupils in
the short term at least until they learn the language of the host country.
English language learning is essential in building resilience among displaced
populations and learning English plays different roles: developing feelings of
confidence and happiness; recovering from the shocks; providing better job
opportunities; better living conditions, fast integration (Ameen & Cinkara,
2018; Cinkara, 2017). Turkish is the medium of education across all public
schools in Turkey, whilst English is mandatorily taught from the first grade
onwards. Turkish high school students' level of communication skills in
English versus in Arabic is better. The refugee students whose English levels
are slightly better are able to establish communication, which is reflected in
terms of their social comfort. Those who know English are also able to bridge
communication between the hosting and refugee groups (Gözpınar, 2018a,
pp. 102). If more refugees could arrive with basic English, the adjustment
could be faster, less traumatic, and less expensive to the receiving country
where they are resettled (Steele, 2017). Some of the refugee students'
motivation level is high in English classes because of the desire and belief that
they may be resettled in an English-speaking country (Wachob & Williams,
2010). English classes create space in schools to support their literacy and they
are united by language, literacy and learning (Naidoo, 2012).
EFL teachers and their class activities can play an essential role in overcoming
the pedagogical, curricular, linguistic, and social obstacles of refugee
students (Ameen & Cinkara, 2018; Cinkara, 2017; Karam, Kibler & Yoder,
2017). Learning is considered as "participation" and this participation refers
to a more encompassing process of being active participants in the practices of
158 | Halis Gözpinar

social communities (Wenger, 1998). EFL classrooms are unique, neutral and
safer places encouraging and increasing active participation of refugee
students and local students. The teacher's doing more engaging activities
rather than imposing responsibilities yields positive results. The classes both
give language support and meet the social and emotional needs of refugee
students. They lower the students' stress level in this situation because they
learn to communicate and to get to know each other in a neutral language. It
helps to ameliorate social tensions as they get to know each other in this
neutral terrain (so it can be good for society also). Their interaction through
English both boosts the student's level of confidence and makes them feel
special. Teachers also provide students with the opportunity to form cross-
cultural friendships based on common core values.
This duty is not only of EFL teachers. Schools should promote
“translanguaging” in such situations. The administrators should have a
strong leadership strategy and their approach to this topic should be of a
constructive manner. Recently arrived refugees who are multilingual or have
proficiency in key languages should get together for at least an hour a day
with the teachers with whom they share a common language. They should
empathize with refugees, and moreover, ponder over what measures they
can take in order to responsibly prevent a “lost generation”. Such teachers
should teach practical and social content and aim to meet refugee students'
fundamental needs as well as provide them with one-to-one tutoring.
Refugee students will be able to freely express themselves and share their
stories while improving their knowledge of languages and awareness in or
out of school. They will begin to place great value on their language use and to
learn more about cultures and interact with more peers and teachers. This
approach can be viewed as a plan of action particularly for countries that
accept refugees on mass and are thus caught unprepared as a consequence.
Intercultural communicative competence (ICC) ought to be given a good
deal of emphasis in foreign language teaching (Demircioğlu & Çakır, 2015).
Cultural studies heighten sociocultural understanding, lead students to
become more sensitive towards other cultures and change their negative
attitudes into positive ones (Gözpınar, 2018b). Learners understand the
nature of the relationship between language and culture in foreign language
classrooms. Cross-culturally sensitive teachers are immensely empathetic, as
well as have demeanours that are more positive, more supportive, and
warmer than their monocultural peers (Börü & Boyacı, 2016). This research
showed that teachers, who had previously lived or studied in cosmopolitan
cities, who spent time abroad, participated in international education
programs are more supportive and view multicultural education more
 Challenges and Experiences of EFL Teachers | 159

positively than their peers who lack the same experience. Such programs help
for shattering the preconceived notions that cultures have about one another
and improving traditional four language skills, as well as cultural studies
(Gözpınar, 2018c).
The materials they use should include the host culture and the home
culture of refugee students (Gözpınar, 2018b). Teachers will be more
compassionate and willing to work with refugees when they have enough
knowledge about their backgrounds (Hones, 2002). Most teachers think that
the spiritual and cultural/ethnic makeup of the Middle East is no different
than that of Turkey when in reality the differences between them on every
level are in fact rather stark. First, they should become familiar with the
culture(s) of their students when selecting their materials, talking about
culture and general topics which might be different than theirs or else the
student could perceive what they are being taught in the wrong way and thus
lose trust in the teacher. Teachers should care for their needs and be flexible in
attaining them. They can do immeasurable good for their healing and sense of
purpose. It brings meaning and belonging to refugee students, as they learn
to appreciate other cultures and especially their own (Steele, 2017).
We expect that this research will shed light on new subtopics within, as
well as serve as a sound contribution to this particular field. The information
that the participants of this research provide might be of tremendous value
both to students and educators alike. Hence, educators will be able to
develop better and more appropriate teaching methods, as well as be able to
better address the needs of learners and form policies based on those needs.

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