Week 7

While reading the article The Cultures of English as a Lingua Franca  I thought of our first week of class when we tried to define culture on our own. The article depicted the definition of culture as: “Culture can be viewed as a discourse or discourse community which is dynamic, complex, and negotiated and one of many possible means of interpreting meaning and understanding in interactions that may or may not emerge as relevant” (Baker 573). I agree with the article’s definition because culture is a complex idea that is constantly changing and it can have various interpretations to different people. 

Culture can be problematic because not everyone has the same view or opinion on it. That brings me to my next point on how I believe it adds to bilingual education being controversial because it comes with change in the schools and in the community. Furthermore, in my opinion students who are linguistically diverse learn best when there is a community created within the classroom and there are interactive activities where the students can practice their language skills. I believe that a student should not let go of their home culture and traditions because then they let go of their identity as we previously learned. A student should never be denied to speak their native language; instead we should encourage them to preserve it because I know many Latino students who do not speak Spanish or the language that was spoken by their ancestors. It has been proven that skills attained in L1 transfer to students’ L2.

Moreover, I found it fascinating that in Marra’s article Recording and Analyzing Talk across Cultures they looked into language in the workplace. I had never thought about language in the workplace because I am always focusing on language in the classroom because of my major so I found it very interesting that the research was interested in exploring what people actually did when they talked together at work. The article stated that working with an ethnically different group inevitably introduces challenges and complexities to the research process. During the time where data is collected they record natural talk that takes place and they also use participant observation. The LWP team strives to ensure that “they gather information from a wide range of communication channels and each context within each workplace to provide a basis for a thorough description of the communication practices of workplace participants. Overall, I found this article interesting because it was something that I had never explored and it opened my eyes to different environments of language.

Week 5- Holliday A2.1, A2.2, & A3.3

I enjoyed reading Holliday A2.1, A2.2, AND A3.3 and the examples were relatable. Holliday stated that the “major inhibition to communication by looking at how, so easily, we can construct and reduce people to be less than what they are.” The first example about John and his new neighbors, the Smiths is probably something we can all relate to because at one point we may have judged someone by their appearance or behaviors in addition to categorizing them into a stereotype. “Stereotypes are often infected by prejudice, which in turn leads to Othering” (Holliday 25). However, what prevents us from seeing people as they really are before making assumptions?

This leads me to believe that we need to be aware of our prejudices before going into a situation and it is vital for us to get to know ourselves as well as the other individual. For example, I will use this for when I become a teacher. I will need to be aware of any prejudices I may have so that I do not project them onto my students. I believe that every student deserves to come into my classroom with a clean slate without me having other viewpoints about them because of other teachers or their school records.  I want to be able to form my own thoughts about my students and not judge them based on what I have previously heard.

The third example stood out to me and made me think about my future classroom. The example described Jabu as a student who was black African and Jeremy the lecturer. Jeremy believed to know a lot about black African culture because he had done research in the area and that’s why he felt like he was a good fit to help guide Jabu through school. “The Teacher announced in class that he know her “context” very well” (Holliday 33). Jabu was unsure about what the teacher had meant by that but she disliked being called out in class. She was surprised that he claimed to know her that well and she mentioned that no one would do that, not even her close friends. They only person who she believed to her well was her mother. Later in the example she became offended because “he was having the audacity to be thinking that she might have difficulty keeping up with “white people” (Holliday 33).

While reading this it had a big impact on me since I plan to be a bilingual elementary teacher. My classroom will consist of students who have a similar background to mine and I will need to make sure that I go in with an open mind and not pretend like I know everything or every student. They are all individuals and they will all have different background and experiences that may differ from mine. I like many other teachers will need to take the time to familiarize myself with the students and who they really are. It is crucial that I get to know about their previous experiences and home life so that I can have lesson that they can relate to. i would not like to make the mistake the teacher made in the example but mistakes like that happen often because we sometimes do not monitor our own language or thoughts before acting.

Jabu was insulted because she believed that Jeremy was making assumptions because she was black African. Jabu also explained that there were other students who were also struggling in the classroom and with deadlines but that he was not blaming their “culture” like he was with her.

How should Jabu have handled the situation with Jeremy? And what would we have done if we were in Jabu's place? I think I would have talked to the teacher because I would not feel comfortable in that environment. 

Week 4 Identity and Language Learning

Social Identity has always been intriguing to me. Social identity comprises of the individual, relationships, reputation, and other social roles. Social identity cannot be defined as a single idea; rather it is seen as multiple. In the article “Social Identity, Investment, and Language Learning” by Norton she argues the conception of “investment” rather than “motivation” to grasp the multifaceted relationship of language learners to the target language learners and their hesitant desire to speak it. The notion of investment signifies that the language learner is seen as an individual with social history and they are not perceived as one-dimensional. It should be looked at as an investment because it increases cultural capital. As we previously learned it is crucial to have cultural capital because it characterizes the different classes and groups in relation to specific sets of social forms. Investing in a second language is beneficial because it will give the language learners new resources and in turn they will increase the value of their cultural capital. “It is also an investment in a learner's own social identity, an identity which is constantly changing across time and space” (Norton, 18).

I see being bilingual as an investment and I am appreciative that I was taught Spanish as a child and that my parents still made me speak it at home even once I had learned English. I now have cousins that refuse to speak Spanish or even teach Spanish to their kids. I feel that the children are only being hurt by it because later in their future they will have wished that they were taught it. Nowadays language should be looked at as an investment especially because in other countries people learn to speak three languages and more!

Other theories of SLA focus on social rather than individual variables in language learning. The “social” refers to group differences between the language learner group and the target language group. This will make it easier to interact with the target language group. In my opinion, students learn best when they are allowed to discuss the materials with their classmates or when they are expected to reteach/retell it to someone else to demonstrate mastery of material covered in class. “In the field of SLA, theorists have not adequately addressed why it is that a learner may sometimes be motivated, extroverted, and confident and sometimes unmotivated, introverted, and anxious; why in one place there may be social distance between a specific group of language learners and the target language community, whereas in another place the social distance may be minimal; why a learner can sometimes speak and other times remains silent” (Norton, 11). That quote from the article stood out to me because every child learns  in different way so we cannot have a one-size fits all type of education and we cannot expect each language learner to react the exact same way when learning a new language, new content, and interacting with English speakers. I feel that theorists have not figure this theory out because it is very complex and a lot of variables go into how confident or motivated a student can be in the school environment.

This was probably the article that stood out to me more because it dealt with language learning and investment as well as social identity. I look forward to learning the definition of identity because I feel that it is also a hard term to define. If our identity is always changing then how do we know who we really are? How is that possible since we are different people depending on our surroundings? It truly makes me wonder of how I act different in a professional job setting, at school, at home, and with friends. I feel that this is something that we need to keep in mind when we become future teachers because some students may be shy, problematic, etc. I look forward to seeing other opinions about identity and our class discussions.