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?
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