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The article called, Appropriating English, Expanding Identities, and Re-Visioning the Field:  From TESOL to Teaching English for Glocalized Communicatioin (TEGCOM) by A. Lin, et. al includes four authors’ autobiographies. These authors are from China, Japan, Iran and Hong Kong. In the article they discussed about the people of China’s motivation to speak English and how they were disinterested. I have never been there but my dad has. He says that that he has always been able to communicate efficiently, and he also is always in the presence of a translator who intervenes when need be. When I was in high school I was truly unmotivated to learn Spanish, I found that there was no reason for me to learn a language that was not the dominant one in my country. Obviously I was naïve and hadn’t yet come to love the Spanish culture. It was hard to only spend 50 minutes a day discussing verbs versus being able to hold an actual conversation. I never could have predicted that one day I would spend 6 months in Spain- where I was absolutely immersed in the culture and forced to hold conversations. It was the epitome of the sink or swim method. This article made me reflect deeply on the journey that I have taken to both use my Spanish and appreciate my ability to do so.

I thought it was interesting that the authors brought up how they were ashamed of their English. When I first got to Spain I was extremely embarrassed and timid to use my Spanish. I definitely had a strong enough background to hold a conversation but felt like I was always going to be judged based on how flawed I was, versus the effort I was putting forth. My señora finally told me to just start talking. Talk all the time in Spanish, who cares if I said things wrong. The more I forced myself, the more naturally it would come. I feel that although Spanish isn’t spoken in my home and was by no means is my first language- it is a huge part of who I am. I identify with a culture, a language, and a collection of experiences that many of my peers do not.

Chapter seven, McKay and Bokhorts was a huge interest to me as a future bilingual education teacher. The goal of a bilingual program is to produce a student who has fluency in both an L1 and L2 but focuses first on foundations in the student’s L1. The student need not be absolutely perfect, but shouldn’t just be skating by either. Without the fundamentals, students will be lost in translation- literally- and not move forward towards success as they struggle to make sense of simple concepts.

This chapter also discusses the rejection of westernization. I again was able to trace my thoughts back to my experiences in Europe. Students there [in Spain] were not interested in learning English- some, but not all. They were not forced at a young age as a child would be put into a bilingual/ dual language program here in the United States at a public school. In Europe, every country is very proud of their history. Ask anyone- young or old- about the history of their country and they can talk for hours. Whether it be about their flag, traditions, battles, etc; they are knowledgeable. I can understand how this pride does not want to be replaced by a younger society, one that is slowly becoming not so dominant. While I was over there we learned all about Spain’s history and it was fascinating. Again, I really felt the emphasis of pride in their classes and discussions. 

4/24/12

Kubota’s reading discusses Japan and the position of language globalization, specifically English. In technical definition, globalization is the relations that are being formed between one group, nation and another. In Kubota’s article there is a term called Koskusaika that is defining globalization as the understanding of people and culture in international communities via social culture.  People view this as a deficit to the multifaceted country that Japan truly is. English is highly being promoted and Japan is now taking on American values and customs. I can only imagine the death to several languages, customs, and rituals that could take place as this phenomenon continues.  These languages are being neglected in the schools and are being made less important on a daily basis. With the possibility of being stereotypical, I often associate Japan as a prideful country full of accomplishment. I think of it as an empire that we do closely compete with and was confused to know that they wanted to be so much ‘like us.’

The demographic diversity of this country was not something that completely shocked me. I have been raised in schools learning ‘Mexican’ Spanish. How does one define ‘Mexican Spanish’ ? I have had professors of different Mexican American, even South American descent. Some are American and simply have learned the language structure of the language spoken in Mexico. I have lived in Spain and learned the nature of a Spain Spanish speaking dialect. As a future bilingual educator, the question of what version of Standard English to teach; is vital. We talk much about BICS and CALP, the social and classroom skills that an ELL has. As much as it is a difference in setting, audience and purpose will greatly influence the language proficiency of a student.

“World English” – On page 372 Matsuda states “teachers need to help students understand the perceived boundary … between what works and what doesn’t.”  I think I have often focused on language as a whole, and disregarded the concept of actually teaching reading and writing. I remember being a tutor for a girl from China last year and always editing her papers. I was heavy on the red pen. I was inconsiderate of the fact that I was not helping her learn the key concepts. I was pulling apart her paper and not looking at the whole. This article really opened my eyes on writing instruction when it comes to teaching English language learners language in writing. It helped set a goal that in the long run I must help students grasp the concept of being able to write a paper that says something, versus it simply being written correctly. 

Chapters 2 & 3

These chapters reminded me much of our discussions in my bilingual courses this week. There are so many different ways people 'think' that dual language programs can be approached, but it often comes down to heated discussions between bilingual education majors. I have spent endless hours, long dinner conversations, and many researched papers showing the content we have learned on how to teach students in their L1 prior to working in L2. This past weekend I actually had a discussion with my dad who thought he knew so much about my major, and basically redirected any theories he had previously. Students should not feel as if they are being forced to give up their native language, and even further not have to erase their cultural identities within the school/ classroom. We are taught that students must develop fully in their native language- developing grammar, syntax, phonetic awareness; etc before they can be told what they are doing is 'incorrect' at all.

We just recently did an experiment in our C&I class. We were given an 'assessment' that was completely 100% in Italian. We were given a long paragraph to read and then questions to answer. All of us are fluent Spanish speakers and some even different levels of Chinese or Japanese. However, the class was dead quiet for several moments. Honestly, I am in the depths of a great novel so I didn't make much effort because I know NO Italian. Some girls I could see were truly trying to understand it. After our professor held a discussion on our thoughts of this 'assessment'. It took everyone a long time to piece things together and our teacher made us realize that these assessments are often timed tests, students who are English language learners don't get to take their time trying to figure out material. Some girls said they were trying to go to the questions and then find the answers. I boldly stated that although there are similarities between the two languages (Spanish & Italian) that everyone simply had to be pretending what they were comprehending. There are words/ vocab/ spellings/ verb usage that is just way too different for us to be able to process what was sitting in front of us. Even with the background of we have in developing language skills, there was little we could do to make sense of it all- no matter how hard we tried to assimilate the two languages. I also feel like this is a strong example of how I feel that pull out programs are not what we should be centering our program development around. Just as Special ed students are mainstreamed into classrooms, as are ELL students. As a bilingual ed major we know the ins & outs of how much culture plays a part in the classroom. There are only like 30 of us in this program, so how does that help? So many teachers do not understand the importance of teaching the fundamentals of a language before bombarding students with new knowledge. There is a happy medium, as there are in all things in life, that teachers must master with ELL students.

The Power of English

As I read this chapter, I was taken back to my senior year of high school Spanish class. I was in Spanish four because I had dropped it for a year, thinking I hate the subject- never realizing it would become my major. I remember we were learning about the subjunctive which seemed impossible to all of us. We had moaned and groaned over our teacher not wanting to move the quiz back because we weren't ready. The next day she informed us we still had a quiz, but she wanted to share an article with us. She had researched to see what the most difficult languages to learn were. Spanish was low on the list; English was almost at the top with Arabic & languages often originating in Asia. That moment kept coming back to me while I was reading about English being such a predominant language in the world. It has become so popular it has become dubbed as the era of globalization.

I learned last semester that languages die. As a vice president of UNICEF, I know that each day 21,000 children die of preventable causes. My daily duty is to find a way to lower this number and make it become zero. But, how do I help a language survive? How does one know how to help an 'endangered language' survive? I often found myself relaxed in Europe while traveling because all signs, announcements, and screens were listed in English. When we were out and about in new cities, had signs in English as well. Manuals or brochures at tourists spots listed all languages, but you could always guarantee English to be listed as well. English has been wide spread in movies, advertisements, and music. When in the clubs in Europe, there were often times that old school pop music from America would pop up, but everyone would just eat it up. You could be having a conversation with someone who spoke NO english, but when the song came on they knew every word. When we went to see movies, they had been voiced over to be in Spanish but they even contained English subtitles. My favorite ads always had European flare (clothing, makeup, hair styles, etc) but gave all details in English. I was never lost in a dark hole that I could not find my way out of with English leading the way.

The part of the chapter that discusses how bilingual educators make the best teachers to teach students of a foreign language, was very interesting. In our bilingual education program, we learn day in and day out about the struggles that these students face. We learn about the difficulties about actually implementing a program that will work and be effective for these students. We know what a privilege it is for ESL students to be part of a well- oiled machine of dual language. Monolingual teachers who do not have the training that we go through, might not respect this concept. We as bilingual educators can rationalize, structure, scaffold, and use supporting details. We can make connections between cross cultures, we can communicate with the parents and help get everyone on the same page. If someone is a monolingual teacher they might not be able to help parents understand and their will be wires crossed constantly. We often have heated debates (with regular el ed teacher candidates not present) about how monolingual teachers make suggestions that everyone should know English, reality is not everyone does. However, getting back to the globalization of English- it is our job to help them become part of society and what it is now.

My father owns his own business and is not a huge fan about how often he has to go to China (I tell him that I would go). I have such a burning passion for travel that I salivate at the thought of going to Asia for the first time. He says that it is much like Chicago in some cities- busy, loud, lots of people. But he says there are signs in English and that although he has a translator/ driver; he could probably still get around on his own. He has told me that he has gone to Friday's over there and it makes me laugh- he has tried to order American food, which comes out much different than what he expects. I told him that just because they SPEAK English, it doesn't mean that they have all of our same customs. Another prime example was when my dad asked his driver how they were not about to die due to his crazy driving. The driver responded, 'drive by feel.' My dad was obviously scared for his life. Although the man could speak English, he does not know that his words were not necessarily calming.

As my last point, when I was in Cancun over my spring break I kept getting frustrated when staff or locals would immediately speak English to me. I was actually shocked that almost EVERYONE I spoke to knew English. Anywho, I have a tattoo on my body in Spanish (and 99% of the time I was in a bathing suit). When they would address me in English and I responded in Spanish they were shocked. When I held conversations with them they truly were impressed that an American would WANT to learn Spanish and about their culture.

A picture's worth 1000 words, or more?

The article, "Construction of racial stereotypes in English as a foreign language textbooks" discusses what the images in texts are portraying to students who are studying English. An image in the text is to depict a white man who is a man of success, happiness, and fulfilling life; whereas a black man is facing challenges that a white man could not dream of in his so called happy life. The article claims that a reader wants to see "beautiful things" in their text and by seeing this they will make better connections. Although I am obviously not learning English as a second language, I am still a student learning new material. Last year in my 209 course, we were learning to teach literacy. This is the class where I learned about codeswitching and how important it was in the classroom; I learned how to not interfere with a student's use of their native language, etc. I often noticed the names in this book were not your average 'Joe' or 'Sally'. They were names that I personally could not attach to any certain ethnicity. Often times they tried not to identify the sex of student they were using as an example either. In my mind, I found it very interesting that they were not trying to use one sort of racial group as a minority who was learning English/ how to read. However, after reading this article, I instantly thought that maybe they were not using typical 'American' names because they were making the suggestion that these students already CAN read and that all the other ethnicities exemplified were subordinate.

The images in a text are much like the images we see in a magazine ad; with the same sort of feeling we get when we see a window display that was constructed with much effort. We HAVE to have it. I feel that this article was saying that we try to sell English. We try to sell success and a life that can be achieved if language acquisition is learned. Mendes states that explored mages in the textbook, which represent the English culture have shaped students and teachers opinions. If we make the English speaking society as one that has dark outcomes, why would anyone continue to seek learning it? Students are supposed feel the excitement for learning a language from the pictures on a page. It persuades them to believe that if by facing challenges head-on, they will eventually be fulfilled. In addition, they gain multiple perspectives on what they are supposed to think about different stereo types. Windowson, 2003, states that dismissing or ignoring the sociopolitical circumstances of a childis inappropriate; thus as teachers we must understand and connect the gap between the two different lives they are beginning to lead.

Lastly, on page 67, Mendes brings up the topic of "Who owns English?" And where do all the elements of learning/ teaching English as Foreign Language come into existence? In this class alone, we are learning about diverse topics from a professor who was raised differently than each and every one of us. It makes sense to have someone provide different perspectives and challenge us to engage in such intensive topics. Many of us have studied this material to some level and we are here taking it a step further. Going back to my sophomore year, my Spanish grammar class was much different. My class was taught by a white, English speaking, Jewish male- who might I mention, learned his Spanish from SPAIN... because he had studied Latin all his life. His class was constructed by using powerpoint slides that took on the material in a new way. He used relevant pictures that would stick out to us. Señor's selections of such images were to make Spanish seem hip and 'fit' with our social interests. In my sociology class we discuss who owns marriage; much the same- where do these rules come from? Who decides what is right and wrong to teach our students?

Culture & Spoken Discourse

Recording and Analyzing Talk by Meredith Marra was an interesting experiment that sparked me to consider how language evolves in all different workplaces. The experiment was to recognize the thought and reflection that takes place while members talk together at a workplace. They were to recognize the technical, logical, and ethical issues. Two main goals of this study was to first, identify the interests that struck both researchers and their volunteer subjects. Second was to build strong relationships and for those who were being studied to not feel like 'lab rats'. The researchers wanted to research with versus on. These prerequisites required the team to learn the specifics of this culture in New Zealand. Once the study left government type buildings and corporate offices, those who were researching began to feel uncomfortable in sorts from the differences that they were seeing in language.
The volunteers were not to be controlled, but were controlling the experiment themselves. They had to record 4 hours of discussion over a 2 to 3 week period. They had control over what they wanted to be recorded and included as part of research. They referred to this as the 'appreciative inquiry'.
The piece did discuss that first senior management was contacted but 'the internal support means success.' I began to think about if I were to be recorded for a day, how many different identities one would hear. I know that at my interview with management I was professional, much different than how I am on a daily basis now that I have worked in the establishment for two years. I thought about how my conversations differ between my guests who are dining and looking for a fabulous experience versus my coworkers who hate being at work just as much as I do. I think about the age of my coworkers versus those who have come in to dine, and how the topics vary greatly on how well one knows each other. Two lunch shifts could cover about 6 hours worth of taping, yet I wonder how many different variations of tone, vocabulary, connotation that you would hear after reviewing it. I thought of my managers and how they speak to us in order for us to operate as one whole unit. There are different situations for different
Marra also writes that English was primarily used in the workplace of the Māori people. It is commonly mistaken that English is interpreted from one cultural perspective. The message: that because two people use the same words and it appears that one understands the other, it should be that both understand each other. This leads into the article by Baker from Tesol Quarterly, that there are a plurality of Englishes. English cannot be seen as a property of one culture or community. There is no real native language then for English because of all its variations. (Baker, 2006). As both Marra and Baker write, we try to create a way of communicating with others who have a different first language or in this sense, share ours but in ways we might not understand. I remember being in Wales with a dear friend on Valentines day of 2008. We were at a bar after my long 7 hour flight and our 3 something hour bus ride. We were having a pint when two gentlemen approached us. One male was moving his mouth and speaking to me, although distracted by his good looks I knew I did not understand this fellow. My friend laughed and kept translating for us. I was baffled at how she knew Welsh. She told me he was speaking English and she was just so used to hearing the differences on a daily basis from living there. Switching back to Marra, the Māori people made it clear that "[I] am an outsider, a visitor, and always will be." (1992:51). I was this outsider and although we shared such common ground, we were truly strangers to one another.
In Chapter six, McKay and Bokhorst struck my interest when they expressed that people choose to speak in a different way and that is their way of self expression. I wonder how we 'choose' how we speak. Our different discourse determines what language we learned and how we are to properly use it, but our decision is our own. The way people tend to portray their sense of speech can affect how others perceive both their social and personal identities. My dear friend has a very low, deep voice that when others speak to him they initially think he is angry. He claims he has to change his voice for certain people and that he doesn't always use his 'real' voice. I know that voice differs from language, but they do go hand in hand. You choose what type of voice you are going to use when you are expressing certain language in different contexts (i.e in a work presentation or when talking to a baby).

The Story of Barbra

At the beginning of this article I could relate to Barbra according to her background. I am also a white female whom grew up in an all white community. A community such as this is strong and proud of its members. However, it is close minded as to what is outside it's little bubble. There are stereotypes within, as there are in any sort of group, but it does not allow members to see from different perspectives.  I am thankful that I had a strong desire to see the world and would have done anything to get such an experience. My study abroad experience is one that changed my life because I was able to squirm outside the fence that had restricted me from knowing what was always on the other side. 

I dove head first into another culture. By moving outside of what I always knew, I had to continue developing language skills; at a faster rate than I ever had before. If the first time I had ever gone to a Mexican restaurant and I had an epiphany that my whole life now had meaning, my parents would have saved a lot of money. A trip to taco bell was not going to make me 'see the light' that culture is not just one dimension. I understand where Barbra came from in the comparing and contrasting of what was American vs. 'their country's traditions.' We found ourselves often discussing this in our Spanish classes at the Universidad, but as time went by it was not so easy. Things I experienced were not just Spanish or American anymore, I found myself relating more or less to certain moments. I was not raised to believe or follow my parents beliefs, they gave me room to grow and explore on my own. As Barbra did not want to continue learning about other cultures because of a negative experience, I feel like culture is much like that. This country, this world being such a melting pot, we live by different moments that define us. Some are good, some are bad; some are fulfilling and some are disappointing. Never does one have to leave their own roots, but they should have the room to grow without feeling as if they are abandoning what 'should' define them. 

My roommate and I became good friends with the two gentlemen who ran the cafe next door to our apartment. We went there on a daily basis to talk, eat, drink, or do homework. Being two locals, who were not near the university so didn't often get the chance to meet Americans, they were fascinated with Chicago trivia. They asked us about Obama, the Chicago Bulls, and about where the actual location of Chicago was (they thought it was near California). As we got to know each other, conversations were more about daily interactions or events versus something so generic. I found it interesting that Barbra had discovered that students had specific characteristics coming from different cultures. I found it even more interesting that she made this observation to David. As Jose & Alex go to know us, they grew to know our mannerisms. They did not associate things as 'American' they associated them to our own identities. David's take on the 'politics of difference' seems its according to whom is looking at the situation and how they are doing so. I enjoy where Barbra states that groups try to connect positive attributes to their heritage and that a thin line exists in teaching. We as teachers must both acknowledge the cultures that grace our classrooms, but we must also make sure that we are not stereotyping, we must make sure that we are not limiting our students to just being 'one' version of themselves.