2. Foreign culture and traditions:

Having chosen Houghton Mifflin as a course material by the management of the school (the host educational environment) affects the class environment and the interaction among students and between teachers and students in another aspect. Houghton Mifflin is originally designed for American students and their own cultures and norms of conduct. They speak about Jewish and Christian traditions and celebrations. They don't mention any celebrations related to the the Muslim culture. They call Palestine as Israel and they show children at the same age of the students (especially in the elementary and secondary schools) leaving their parents and homes to live alone or work for the summer vacation and this is considered strange for the students and even caused some problems for their parents. The diversity of cultures found in America (like having Chinese, African American, Mexican, and Indian) already identified within the students' textbooks caused a lot of troubles with me inside classrooms as the students are not familiar with their ideas and customs and discussions among students were relatively limited. Students lacked the motivation they needed for the learning process to continue with the same Cooperative Learning approach. Parents also couldn't accept having their children taught about certain ideas like the sanctity of the Jewish religion for example. It is fixed in their minds that the image of the Jewish people should stay as the conquerors who took over Palestine and killed the Palestinian people.

Teaching a foreign language goes inseparably along with teaching the foreign culture itself. All the components of culture, such as beliefs and customs are described by language and helping the students themselves to speak the language efficiently inside classrooms is a way of forcing this culture upon them. Pica in her article "Questions from the Language Classroom: Research Perspectives", suggests that "how necessary to learning a language is the learner's cultural integration?" is something which "troubles teachers as "they work with students in classrooms far removed from the culture of the language they are learning" (1994). Having foreign culture adds to the complexity of the teaching- learning process and serves as an effective factor to the success or failure of this process.

3. The influence of the local culture and the local teacher's groups on the classroom environment:

1. The influence of the local culture:

Students in Syria are expected to regard teachers as absolute authorities inside the class and students are not encouraged to make any kind of research about any topic or engage in group or team activities unless they are directly ordered to do so. This educational background, along with the collectionist pedagogy cause the lack of problem-solving and communication skills among the students. With the growing importance of learning English inside our community, parents tend to send their children to private schools where they will supposedly have better chances in improving their efficiency in English. That further increased the focus of most private schools on the integrationist methodology of teaching. However, what is taught is different from what is learnt. As the students move to student-centered classrooms, they need adjust their ways of studying. So, no more exam oriented studying where they rely on instructors to summarize what they need to study and no more receiving and repeating information. This turning point is not an easy step to accomplish.

From my personal experience boys started to appear very interested in the new method where they have to learn to learn and win competitions and have fun at the same time. However, girls due to sociocultural and religious influences on their macro culture had some difficulties in integrating with groups including boys and felt timid to participate inside the classroom. They showed a kind of understanding and integration within the learning process whenever I checked their group. However, in reality she was too shy to admit her incomprehension of everything that was going on. The contrast between the deep and the surface actions was largely caused by the sociocultural influence of the classroom environment. Collier in his book A Film Study in Classrooms in Western Alaska (1979) distinguishes between "two patterns". The first one is "when the teacher's pace is different from that of her or his pupils, resulting in low flow. The second pattern is when the teacher's pace is in harmony with that of pupils, resulting high flow". I consider the act of this girl as "low flow" as she hides her ignorance of everything that is happening inside the classroom. The reason for such a "low flow" happened because of the influence of the local culture on the classroom environment.