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?