Week 6: Cultural Writing

This week's readings were focused on writing in the ESL classroom. Writing assignments are an important part of the classroom- students use writing to develop grammar skills, thought-formation in English, and creative expression. Teachers use it at a tool for assessments and to gain a better understanding of their students. I also think that just the process of writing and reading is crucial in the language learning process. It can seem overwhelming for students to formulate and write their thoughts in another language and we must be aware of that. The different ideas on how to teach appropriate writing skills listed in these articles are a great resource. Some of the information given was very disheartening but important for us to know.

I feel like writing has a lot to do with the variation in cultural pedagogy and it creates barriers.  For example, we as American students were taught how to form argumentative essays in one form while Japanese students were taught a different form. I as an American teacher might grade low an essay that could be considered a strong essay in another school culture. It is important for us as TESOL educators to recognize this variation and use teachers as a resource when it comes to assigning and assessing writing assessments.

Another aspect we must be aware of is the type of writing assignments we give to students. Assignments must be culturally representative and allow for students of different technical writing backgrounds to express themselves fully without fear of rejection of ideas or word usage.

Personally, I find writing and creative expression through writing in ANY language to be difficult. I have trouble with grammar and get caught up in the grammar rules that my thoughts and ideas get lost. What I find to be helpful is peer editing and knowing that with practice my writing will get better.

Week 5: Its all in the Family

I absolutely love reading A Step From Heaven. Honestly, at this moment I am not done with the book but love it so far. It is heart wrenching to read; I completely empathize with Young Ju. As I have mentioned before, my parents are from Mexico and I was raised bilingual. I connected with the character in a very strange and new way- not until relatively recently did I realize that my experiences growing up are similar to many other bilingual first-generation Americans. In schools, we learn to make connections to stories and characters but I never felt any connection with a character such as this.

Growing up bilingual is such a weird and undefinable process that effects every part of your upbringing. I especially like how the author mixes in new words with English words and does not define them yet we learn through context. As a bilingual student who learned English in school and only spoke Spanish at home, often times words heard at school would be completely new to me and I would learn their meaning through context.

Family Language Policy was discussed further in our other reading, Hyun-Sook Kang's article Korean-Immigrant Parents' Support of Their American-Born Children's Development and Maintenance of the Home Language. As I said before, I was raised bilingual. My parents were from Mexico and we spoke Spanish at home and English at school. As we got older, English would creep into our home conversations and eventually our sibling conversations became English and our parent conversations became Spanglish. I have always wondered what language or languages my children might speak. In a monolingual society it falls to the parents to teach another 'native language' to their children. I like how this study took every day things, like dinner conversations, and analyzed them to the parental ideals. Although children might feel ashamed or like outcasts because their 'family language' isn't like their classmates, we as teachers must realize how important language learning in the home is. I hope that parents of bilingual children continue to push their children to keep their other 'native languages' and force them to practice it at home. Being bilingual is a gift; I recognize that now and am grateful that my parents kept us in line even when we would retaliate.

Week 4: Language and Identity: Social Distance

I really enjoyed this week's readings and instantly made many connections to my life and my experiences. In Norton's first article, Social Identity, Investment, and Language Learning, she describes social distance. Simply put, it is the distance between a language learner and the social practice of the language. If someone were to study a language from vocab lists and text books, their fluency would not be as well developed as a student who has participated in social practices of the target language. I immediately thought about studying abroad in Spain and the differences between the students who went out and practiced their Spanish every chance they could- at the markets, stores, restaurants, exchanges, etc.- and students who refused to practice with anyone. Now that we have returned, those students who practiced are able to use their Spanish confidently and fluently while the other students have more difficulty speaking in Spanish. Another connection I made to the readings this week was in the investment each learner had to learning the target language and the rejections they encountered. In the article, Eva felt rejected because of her accent and that set her back. As a language student I understand that accents are difficult to develop through (I hate using the words 'get rid off'). I feel that as teachers we must create a safe environment so that students feel comfortable enough to practice English without fear.
In the second article, Language and Identity, there are different ideas on how to incorporate different activities into the classroom, such as videos, creative writing, drawing, photography, or drama. As an education major we are taught in different teaching courses about the effectiveness of these activities. They allow the students to use their creativity and apply what they have learned to things that interest them. This also gives them the opportunity to discover and further develop their identity. This reminded me of the first assignment we had in this class. I liked it because it made me analyze the importance of language learning in my life and gave me a clear perspective of why I was studying TESOL. I think that this will further motivate students and in return they will have a greater and in depth investment in learning the language.