Chapter 2 (Wong)
Although the first section was a bit too physiological for my personal tastes, I most definitely appreciated the following two quotes:
Page 44: “Through teaching, Confucius sought to influence society and to bring about social reforms.”
Page 46: “The quest for selfhood is not a heroic act of individualism or a private matter. It is social rather than an individual pursuit.”
These quotes transitioned nicely into the author’s ideology of that learning goes hand-in-hand with the community, which in essence is promoting that need for scaffolding proposed by our dear friend Vygotsky: “Language occurs on the social plane or in community before it occurs independently or individually” (49).
Cummins framework for empowerment of language minority students peaked my interest: additive, collaborative, reciprocal and assessment. I think we forget about viewing a lot of minorities in our classroom as marginalized within and outside of school grounds; as teachers it is vital that we make such efforts, as mentioned by Cummins, to make the excluded, included – or at least to the extent that we are able to. That Canadian case study proves this!
Another interesting quote: “We size up other people in conversations… It means that in order to communicate we must always jump to conclusions about what other people mean. There is no way around this” (61). Need I elaborate? Funny yet true.
The point regarding the adopted children being put on the spot by the teacher about their cultural heritage is a valid point. I have friends who were adopted from China when they were around 5-7 months old; they are practically clueless about the “framework” of Chinese society. People assume, though, that they are an overflowing resource into that particular cultural lense based on their appearance. On a similar note, I was born and raised in the United States. And the more I travel, the more I am realizing how little I even know about my own cultural heritage.
Lastly, the bullying and hate crimes have been a relevant issue lately in our society. I actually had to watch a documentary on this development within our public schools in addition to the different case studies involved in such hate crimes (e.g., sometimes to the point of suicide). Even though we might have different morals, views, perspectives – I am a strong believer that you can still respect that person, even if you dislike their views on a topic. Maybe I’m in the minority on that one.
“Breaking them up…”
“In almost every classroom in the school, about half of the enrollment consisted of children whose home/first languages were other than English.”
Since I am a visual person, I was envisioning this scene as a future professional. This article reminded me how rough it can be to teach K-12 sometimes. Now as a graduate assistant, I have almost “accustomed” myself to college methods, whereas all my undergraduate experiences were in high school classrooms. This article was a good reminder on how new this TESOL field of study really is; there are so many studies and theories still being produced and analyzed today. Should we pull out ELL? Should we always have a translator present? How do we handle six different ELLs all in one classroom with less than basic-level English? These questions are beyond my comprehension to begin to answer.
The three practices – sitting at own desk, using own materials, doing own work with own words – all dictated that the learning process is an individual journey, instead of fostering and supporting learning in community. Unfortunately, this ideology is not one that merely happens over night; it is one that gradually grows over time. We as professionals must nip it in the bud as soon as we recognize the contagious, deadly weed in our classroom. But why don’t teachers stop this? Is it ignorance or apathy?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Ginkgo Tree
Chapter 1 (Wong)
A whirlwind of thoughts came to mind during the first few pages. First, I was reflecting on my mother’s experience in being one of the only females in her field of study (law, eventually becoming a judge years down the road). She talks to this day about how hard it was to first be accepted into the university itself, not to mention the power relations represented between teacher-female and male-female. Also, I was REALLY surprised by the statistics in regards to the number of Chicana students with high school and university education. Since this interests me so much, maybe I could do my paper on Chicana identity within American culture in relation with educational goals? I’ll have to chew on that one. Lastly, the following statement really left me immensely saddened: “In the United States there are more African American young men in prison than in college” (3). I just want to reach out to these marginalized students in our society. They have so much potential; they just need someone to help them find it.
“Someone who tells you they don’t like the way you speak is quite likely telling you that they don’t like you” (10). ¡Qué fuerte! For me, I am that annoying student who is mesmerized by foreign accents in English, and I ask all the questions about the person’s cultural heritage. In my linguistics class last semester, we talked about how English pronunciation is extremely important in the meaning of words (ship vs. sheep), whereas in other languages pronunciation is not as important as syntax and morphology (like Spanish).
I have heard of most of these approaches except the “reading approach.” Although I would not solely base pedagogy on this, it is an interesting perspective to consider. Under the “Communicative Competence” section, I appreciate all those seven different functions of language that emerged in Halliday’s case study – especially the imaginative function and heuristic function. In one context or another, we all have used language to fulfill these seven functions.
I feel as if our foreign language methodology here at ISU adopts in part the dialogic pedagogy. For example, my supervisor adores the gap-information activities and all lessons must be contextualized with natural discourse among LLs. As we progress in chapters, I will be able to analyze this approach in more detail.
I really benefited from the visual diagram that defined the differences between approach, method, and technique. I very often utilize them incorrectly.
A whirlwind of thoughts came to mind during the first few pages. First, I was reflecting on my mother’s experience in being one of the only females in her field of study (law, eventually becoming a judge years down the road). She talks to this day about how hard it was to first be accepted into the university itself, not to mention the power relations represented between teacher-female and male-female. Also, I was REALLY surprised by the statistics in regards to the number of Chicana students with high school and university education. Since this interests me so much, maybe I could do my paper on Chicana identity within American culture in relation with educational goals? I’ll have to chew on that one. Lastly, the following statement really left me immensely saddened: “In the United States there are more African American young men in prison than in college” (3). I just want to reach out to these marginalized students in our society. They have so much potential; they just need someone to help them find it.
“Someone who tells you they don’t like the way you speak is quite likely telling you that they don’t like you” (10). ¡Qué fuerte! For me, I am that annoying student who is mesmerized by foreign accents in English, and I ask all the questions about the person’s cultural heritage. In my linguistics class last semester, we talked about how English pronunciation is extremely important in the meaning of words (ship vs. sheep), whereas in other languages pronunciation is not as important as syntax and morphology (like Spanish).
I have heard of most of these approaches except the “reading approach.” Although I would not solely base pedagogy on this, it is an interesting perspective to consider. Under the “Communicative Competence” section, I appreciate all those seven different functions of language that emerged in Halliday’s case study – especially the imaginative function and heuristic function. In one context or another, we all have used language to fulfill these seven functions.
I feel as if our foreign language methodology here at ISU adopts in part the dialogic pedagogy. For example, my supervisor adores the gap-information activities and all lessons must be contextualized with natural discourse among LLs. As we progress in chapters, I will be able to analyze this approach in more detail.
I really benefited from the visual diagram that defined the differences between approach, method, and technique. I very often utilize them incorrectly.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Week 5: Sociocultural worlds of learners
I think input is harder than people crack it up to be. Personally, having to speak 90-95% Spanish to my second semester Spanish class is extremely hard. Language must express and negotiate personal meaning. It’s really challenging in some moments not to succumb to an English whim in class in order to get my point across. Although the book questions simplified vocabulary (e.g., cognates) and rate of speech, that is the only way I can give comprehensible input to my students some days.
I personally find error correction a fascinating field, probably because each person and situation has its own contextual factors to consider before proceeding. We discussed this topic quite a bit in my foreign language pedagogy courses (Spanish). For examples, in some classrooms and cultures, direct correction is expected and appreciated. However, it is important for each teacher to know their students’ personalities and preferences. I usually correct with rising intonation questions or recast.
I would have died without contextual cues in my first steps of a language learner. If the LL is immersed in a culture similar to the culture of L1, then the target language can be enhanced by communicating and understanding each other with the foundation of contextual cues included in the conversation. Make sense?
“Acquisition without interaction; interaction without acquisition” – I have seen this socioculturally oriented view go both ways. Some people can study just the books and become fluent in a language, and then others know the rules inside-and-out but cannot produce orally a jot of the language. Again, it all depends on the individual learner.
I personally find error correction a fascinating field, probably because each person and situation has its own contextual factors to consider before proceeding. We discussed this topic quite a bit in my foreign language pedagogy courses (Spanish). For examples, in some classrooms and cultures, direct correction is expected and appreciated. However, it is important for each teacher to know their students’ personalities and preferences. I usually correct with rising intonation questions or recast.
I would have died without contextual cues in my first steps of a language learner. If the LL is immersed in a culture similar to the culture of L1, then the target language can be enhanced by communicating and understanding each other with the foundation of contextual cues included in the conversation. Make sense?
“Acquisition without interaction; interaction without acquisition” – I have seen this socioculturally oriented view go both ways. Some people can study just the books and become fluent in a language, and then others know the rules inside-and-out but cannot produce orally a jot of the language. Again, it all depends on the individual learner.
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