Pedagogical Communication Issues Arising during International Migrations to Teach Science in America

Abstract

International teachers are being invited into American schools to help alleviate shortages in such critical areas as mathematics, science, and foreign languages. This study describes the pedagogical communication issues (i.e., use of expressions, manners of speech, accent, the different meanings of specific words, and spelling) faced by four international science teachers from Britain, Germany, and Ghana, when they came to teach in the United States. The teachers expressed the need to learn new communication approaches in order to function effectively in their new schools.