While reading this week in Kumar’s book, I was completely visual the whole time on many topics he had written about during chapter 4’s stereotyping and also the delusions of cultural assimilation in chapter 5. The story about the Korean pilots “purposely” killing almost their entire flight was mind boggling to me that someone would allow their beliefs to override their common sense features. I do understand the notion of not commanding authority, but out of life and death- let alone other’s lives and your purpose of being a pilot, I can only imagine the disbelief the families felt when they found out that their love one could have been alive today if that person’s personal beliefs did not override his decision making. I hope that these pilots did not learn this behavior in flight school.
The whole rest of the chapter about stereotyping caught my attention immediately since it made me reflect as an educator and a person- this is one of the main reasons why I chose to enter the program of TESOL aside from many other reasons and opportunities. My background as an individual is quite eclectic. Living and growing up in a Pittsburgh, where many years ago was the epicenter of immigration close to the standards of New York City, has allowed my lifestyle and personality to be multi-ethnic on a daily basis. Whether it’s whichever town I drive through, the churches and social clubs I pass, what stores or restaurants I stop at, etc really embark as to what it is like to live in a city enriched with culture at your fingertips…literally. Having said that, even in 2009, Pittsburgh and the areas surrounding it, are still segregated communities that focus on a particular culture- Squirrel Hill, mostly Jewish community, Polish Hill- need I say more, North Side, Germany, Greenfield, Scotch & Irish…People of their “people” still protect themselves in a way that other’s would not in cities that are not as “tight knit”. I personally know people who have grown up in many of these areas listed above who still speak in the frame of mind of the “old country” with not wanting to have anything to do with anyone that is not of their culture. Anyone that is a “threat” to them, as in someone that is outside of their ethnicity, poses neglect, stereotyping, racism, etc. When I chose to take the position out in Ajo, AZ, someone close to me asked what would I want to do working with a bunch of illegal aliens trying to take our jobs and crowd our classrooms? Later on another infuriating question arose as to: “Do you really want to work with ‘those kind of people’ for the rest of your life?” Obviously I was flabbergasted by the negativity and hostility these people had about working with individuals that are “immigrants or L2”- but only one question came out of my mouth after being drilled: “Isn’t your family from ‘off the boat’ and had to go through the same processes “these people” are going through…if not worse?” This is the frame of mind that I hope to help educate years down the road during my career as a TESOL educator (aside from many others) because I truly believe that civilization (school, professional, community, governmental, etc) can be accepting of EVERYONE’S cultural background but it’s their personal beliefs that have to be respected.
The delusions mentioned about cultural assimilation are quite clear that personal regards to their ethnicity has been uprooted and forgotten as so many immigrants (including my own family) as they tried to fit into American standard of living. Few things come to mind. 1, I dated a guy in college whose mother’s parents had immigrated here right before she was born. When they settled here, they changed their last name from Petrillo to Petril so they would not be judged for being Italian. That always struck me in disbelief since I obviously did not grow up in the age of extreme immigration and racism in America but having all of this time go by and knowing that your family members did this to “survive”, wouldn’t you consider having your last name changed back to its original form? Yes I know that’s a pain due to documents sake etc, but for the sense of who you are and where you (or your family) came from- something to think about I guess. 2, my mother’s side of the family celebrated their culture more than my father’s side- which I think has influenced me to behave in a more ethnic way due to this. Now we don’t go “all out” and celebrate any other holidays than the ‘norm’ here in the USA but we do the food, church, and ceremonies before meals that I know not many families participate if you’re from Slovak/Russian decent. While cleaning out my parent’s house I had run across my deceased grandfather’s photo album that his wife, my grandmother who I never met, continuously made from the time they were married until her death. What interested me was the ‘look alikes’ of all their other friends and relatives and the socials they participated in. My mother informed me that they would go to the Slovak club every Saturday night with their friends and do what they did…as you can imagine. Slovaks associated with other Slovaks and that’s just the way it was back then. You wouldn’t dare walking into any other ethnic club (Italian, German, etc…) unless you were invited by a guest. Even so, my mom said, you stood out. Having thought about this, if you drive around the Pittsburgh area, and I am originally from West Mifflin/Duquesne area, many of these ethnic social clubs have since closed and moved on one way shape of form. There are a few still surviving but it’s mostly fire halls, VFW’s, Knights of Columbus’s. Yes many have probably closed due to the shut down of the mill, people then venturing off into other parts of the country for professional, educational, or personal reasons, etc. What makes me think is this- there has never been a time in my life where I thought, ‘gee, I should join a club just for my ethnicity’. But then realism comes into play- my cultural background has about 4 ethnicities…which one would I choose anyways if any one of them where even open? My point is that as generations have evolved in this country specifically, it is easier for us to forget about where we came from if our ancestors didn’t want to involve us in the first place. My mother used to be able to speak fluently in Slovak and her father could still speak Russian but it has since vanished from her cognition due to her relatives dying off and others not having a need for it. Same for the little cultural things we used to do during Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter- it’s not the same anymore when someone dies (like the ones that hold the family together) and no one wants to keep the traditions going. I feel that holidays and family gatherings anymore (not just with my family but with other families that I have been invited to) are nothing more than sitting in front of the TV watching something sports related or reality trash, kids constantly on their cell phones, and the wives upstairs chatting as they do. In my own family, my brother and I became quite aggravated during a holiday watching our younger cousins wanting nothing to do with anyone except who was on the other end of their phone. So we’ve slowly tried to incorporate the events that we used to participate in when our families parents/aunts/uncles/ etc were alive to encourage a sense of appreciation for not only their family, but where they came from. 3, and lastly- another reason why I feel that even today, many Americans want to look, speak, and act like one another because society and entertainment tells us to. I could go on about that but that’s a real obvious one. In my personal life, I wish my family would have been more promising to their cultural roots while also opening up to the ‘norms’ of being an American citizen because I feel that my life and my immediate family’s lives would have had a different frame of mind let alone connection.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Chapter 2- Culture and its Complexities: Kumar & Chapter 2 & 3- Language and Identity & Language and Culture Learning: Hall
Chapter 2- Culture and its Complexities: Kumar
Culture seems to possess an extraordinary power to sow the seeds of dissension between members of a family, between communities in a nation, and between nations in this world. The three cultural dimensions, archaic, residual, and the emergent, interact between old and the new in cultural patterns of individuals as well as communities. Here is where they dive into civilization and its interconnectedness that forge with one another. Culture and community presents a shared sense of individualized identity while society presents a general notion of institutionalized collectivity. Society gives a sense of belonging normally associated with the nation-state. I found this quote interesting because I can see it eventually happening when you are the outsider, aka non-native to the area, but when I lived in rural southwestern Arizona, I found it took at least 6 months for me to feel some how accommodated to the area since my ethnicity was the minority status along with beliefs, practices, and my native language is considered the foreign language. I dove into the “cultural capital” as they call it to become acquainted with a collective society. I didn’t feel as if I belonged to a cultural otherization.
The “definition” of culture seems to be a complex and contentious nature that’s vague, yet shapes the lives of individuals, communities, and nations alike. All the different varieties of culture have distinctive features that carries itself into the realm of hybrid culture. As cultural language goes hand in hand with individual development of learners cultural identity (interculturality), its challenges hold true to the everyday changes that becomes unequipped to the teacher. Language is a powerful tool that is the shaper of ideas and a guide for all thought. Hence how the internet and the many blogs that “run” our global informational highway can cause global upset from one spectrum to another. Language determines thought; the weak version suggests that language influences thought. Since the World War and the 1990’s the forces of globalization have been shaping the interests of all nations as a cultural capital. The impact it has had on all communities and nations, even technological, had allowed others to exchange cultural knowledge aside from political issues and general information. The difference between C (formal institutions) and c (daily life) and the standards: Communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities all tie together to help educators, sociologists, anthropologists, researchers, etc can help decipher and develop an awareness of other people’s world views, unique way of life, pattern of behavior, learned contributions, while offering contribution to solutions to common problems: ethnocentrism that dominates the thinking of young people.
Chapter 2 & 3- Language and Identity & Language and Culture Learning: Hall
Language is viewed as a universal nature of self-contained, independent entities, extractable from individual existence that eventually makes autonomous decision makers. Language users are social actors whose identities are multiple, varied and emergent from their everyday experiences- locally stimulated and at the same time historically constituted and thus are precarious, contradictory and in process constantly being reconstituted in discourse each time we think or speak. Culture is assumed to be in individuals but not of them. They can display their cultural norms and realize their personal intentions that are not necessarily related to their culture group. People become socially constituted- a reflexive product of the social, historical and political contexts of an individual’s lived experiences. Individuals mediate their involvement and the involvement of the others in their practices. We take up a position in a social field in which all positions are moving and defined relative to one another: social action becomes a site of dialogue- authors of those moments. Culture is seen as a reflexive, made and remade in our language games, our lived experiences, and exist through routinized action that includes the material (and physical conditions) as well as the social actors’ experience in using their bodies while moving through a familiar space. We are not culture-free; we are every communicative encounter as we are at the same time carriers and agents of culture.
Lev Vygotsky is mentioned a lot throughout this chapter in his focus on being a cultural psychologist discussing sociocultural theory of development being first proposed over 50 years ago and while in more recent formations that have been built on has been modified and extended. ZPD (zone of proximal development) includes scaffolding, modeling, and training which assists different modes and to the role and relationships made available to us. Research development on language includes linguistic anthropology, developmental psychology, and psycholinguistics. Mediational means are the carriers of sociocultural patterns and knowledge where the tools and resources with which more expert members assist less competent participants in noticing, ordering, representing and remembering their involvement in their communicative activities: visual, physical,verbal, and computational. Linguistic applied approach views language learning as an innate process of linguistic system-building, a sociocultural perspective views as the jointly constructed process of transforming socially formed knowledge and skills into individual abilities. Socioculturally constructed process of changing patterns of participation in specific social practices within communities of practice. Language is considered both evolutionary and a historical process. To earn language, a sociocultural perspectice argues that what we actually learn is shaped by our history of lived experiences in our communicative environments and the particular opportunities provided to and created by us to use the means associated with these contexts: cultural learning. The processes and products of language learning, for it is in and through the processes of teaching, and more specifically the processes of approaching learners into the communicative activities of their learning environments where the conditions for and substance of learning are given shape.
Culture seems to possess an extraordinary power to sow the seeds of dissension between members of a family, between communities in a nation, and between nations in this world. The three cultural dimensions, archaic, residual, and the emergent, interact between old and the new in cultural patterns of individuals as well as communities. Here is where they dive into civilization and its interconnectedness that forge with one another. Culture and community presents a shared sense of individualized identity while society presents a general notion of institutionalized collectivity. Society gives a sense of belonging normally associated with the nation-state. I found this quote interesting because I can see it eventually happening when you are the outsider, aka non-native to the area, but when I lived in rural southwestern Arizona, I found it took at least 6 months for me to feel some how accommodated to the area since my ethnicity was the minority status along with beliefs, practices, and my native language is considered the foreign language. I dove into the “cultural capital” as they call it to become acquainted with a collective society. I didn’t feel as if I belonged to a cultural otherization.
The “definition” of culture seems to be a complex and contentious nature that’s vague, yet shapes the lives of individuals, communities, and nations alike. All the different varieties of culture have distinctive features that carries itself into the realm of hybrid culture. As cultural language goes hand in hand with individual development of learners cultural identity (interculturality), its challenges hold true to the everyday changes that becomes unequipped to the teacher. Language is a powerful tool that is the shaper of ideas and a guide for all thought. Hence how the internet and the many blogs that “run” our global informational highway can cause global upset from one spectrum to another. Language determines thought; the weak version suggests that language influences thought. Since the World War and the 1990’s the forces of globalization have been shaping the interests of all nations as a cultural capital. The impact it has had on all communities and nations, even technological, had allowed others to exchange cultural knowledge aside from political issues and general information. The difference between C (formal institutions) and c (daily life) and the standards: Communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities all tie together to help educators, sociologists, anthropologists, researchers, etc can help decipher and develop an awareness of other people’s world views, unique way of life, pattern of behavior, learned contributions, while offering contribution to solutions to common problems: ethnocentrism that dominates the thinking of young people.
Chapter 2 & 3- Language and Identity & Language and Culture Learning: Hall
Language is viewed as a universal nature of self-contained, independent entities, extractable from individual existence that eventually makes autonomous decision makers. Language users are social actors whose identities are multiple, varied and emergent from their everyday experiences- locally stimulated and at the same time historically constituted and thus are precarious, contradictory and in process constantly being reconstituted in discourse each time we think or speak. Culture is assumed to be in individuals but not of them. They can display their cultural norms and realize their personal intentions that are not necessarily related to their culture group. People become socially constituted- a reflexive product of the social, historical and political contexts of an individual’s lived experiences. Individuals mediate their involvement and the involvement of the others in their practices. We take up a position in a social field in which all positions are moving and defined relative to one another: social action becomes a site of dialogue- authors of those moments. Culture is seen as a reflexive, made and remade in our language games, our lived experiences, and exist through routinized action that includes the material (and physical conditions) as well as the social actors’ experience in using their bodies while moving through a familiar space. We are not culture-free; we are every communicative encounter as we are at the same time carriers and agents of culture.
Lev Vygotsky is mentioned a lot throughout this chapter in his focus on being a cultural psychologist discussing sociocultural theory of development being first proposed over 50 years ago and while in more recent formations that have been built on has been modified and extended. ZPD (zone of proximal development) includes scaffolding, modeling, and training which assists different modes and to the role and relationships made available to us. Research development on language includes linguistic anthropology, developmental psychology, and psycholinguistics. Mediational means are the carriers of sociocultural patterns and knowledge where the tools and resources with which more expert members assist less competent participants in noticing, ordering, representing and remembering their involvement in their communicative activities: visual, physical,verbal, and computational. Linguistic applied approach views language learning as an innate process of linguistic system-building, a sociocultural perspective views as the jointly constructed process of transforming socially formed knowledge and skills into individual abilities. Socioculturally constructed process of changing patterns of participation in specific social practices within communities of practice. Language is considered both evolutionary and a historical process. To earn language, a sociocultural perspectice argues that what we actually learn is shaped by our history of lived experiences in our communicative environments and the particular opportunities provided to and created by us to use the means associated with these contexts: cultural learning. The processes and products of language learning, for it is in and through the processes of teaching, and more specifically the processes of approaching learners into the communicative activities of their learning environments where the conditions for and substance of learning are given shape.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Firth, Wagner: On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research
While focusing on the discourse and other concepts on how to successfully improve how professionals teach and analyze non-native speakers (Second Language learners), such as having non-native speakers evaluated during open naturalistic physical conversations with native speakers, I highly agree on adding this critical assessment for Second Language Acquisition towards successful research linguistics. It is highly functional and personally, successful, along with analytic research in accordance with reading, writing, etc categories. Each have its research achievements as well as negatives that pose the delay of fully being comprehensible with a second language… “normal science”.
As a north-eastern US citizen participating in the out-of-state student teaching experiences in Ajo, Arizona- typical dessert towns populated with the majority of Mexicans, Tohono Native American Indians, “snow birds”, and military families- I was given the opportunity to be fully emerged with a ESL/EFL students, families, community members, etc where I first handedly witnessed and participated in Second Language Acquisition. As a well rounded educated young woman breaking out of her undergrad university to show them what she has learned- I was completely naïve and astonished by the lack of money or even vocal standpoint on helping these students (or adults in anyway you look at it) so they may be efficient in society, education, professionally, etc. I was fortunate to be placed with a Title I Reading Specialist who was also a Caucasian resident from the town who knew no other language but English (she only knew the occasional phrase and words). She was sent to a Marie Carbo Reading Curriculum conference held in the area where this particular program was focused for ESL students and/or moderate-severe native English language issues. Due to the funds to buy such a program (which is an incomprehensive issue that I hope changes in the near future as we as educators speak for the children and adults for these needs) only one set was bought for the school to be used. None of the K-6 regular classroom teachers were dispersed this reading curriculum let alone knew much about the benefits or how it works etc. The goals were to focus on the improvements of literacy and language through fluency and comprehension in short periods of time using synchronized audio and interesting literature for the students to readily follow along with. The program focuses on three main enhancements- memory: which is enhanced through interest of literature; synchronization: where the student uses visual and audio senses to accomplish these tasks; and chunking: groups of words together. The students and teachers have opportunities to practice out loud together reading, reciting, and also thinking critically about whatever story or topic is addressed. While gaining these successful experiences and now reading this article, On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research by Firth & Wagner, I wish I would have thought to create more realistic and “natural” conversational experiences to expand their language growth in so many different social experiential genres.
While being face to face or even audio experiences for an ESL/EFL person, they are able to see expression, hear intonation to give context clues towards a comprehensive conversation/experience. Also how social interaction is important to show private emotions that can change any conversation from one direction to the next. The example in this article- when the two individuals were talking about what the genre of material the ESL person reads. Native speakers, who are willing and patient to guide a successful comprehensive conversation, can become teachers without even knowing it to help non-native speakers successfully engage in the art of another language. As an educator this can be a great strategy that can be analyzed more thoroughly during any genre of communication. I feel that it should be respected on the same critical learning level of analyzing a second language, such as English-with writing, reading, reciting, acting, etc. Sociologically, citizens of their ancestor countries are still deciding to leave or travel to English speaking countries where in many cases becomes a critical need for communicating on many different levels all for one goal- to get what they need to survive and/or achieve a purpose. While focusing on the United States in America, I have seen and read about teachers trying to promote this genre of linguistics where it can be a losing battle when it comes to economic support from government officials who do not believe in any other language being spoken in society, schools, entertainment, etc except for English due to their own personal racisms or whatever their gripe is about it.
I would like to see sociolinguistic-curriculums added to help all speakers of English, both non-native and native, become a “normal science” or shall I say apart of an educational curriculum in all schools to benefit all while expanding on many other topics such as culture, beliefs, etc. Being anESL individual does not mean you have a handicap against conversations native English speaking people- you’re a LEARNER…and as educators we need to foster that mentality to everyone- including the learners themselves. I loved the line that Language involves more than one person- and I feel that it is not something that many people think of- in other words I think it’s perceived as more of an art and not as a communicative interactive tool with the world. It’s nice to read about NNS having the capabilities of becoming a “superior and controller” of conversations rather than only being viewed as an info gatherer with a NS.
As a north-eastern US citizen participating in the out-of-state student teaching experiences in Ajo, Arizona- typical dessert towns populated with the majority of Mexicans, Tohono Native American Indians, “snow birds”, and military families- I was given the opportunity to be fully emerged with a ESL/EFL students, families, community members, etc where I first handedly witnessed and participated in Second Language Acquisition. As a well rounded educated young woman breaking out of her undergrad university to show them what she has learned- I was completely naïve and astonished by the lack of money or even vocal standpoint on helping these students (or adults in anyway you look at it) so they may be efficient in society, education, professionally, etc. I was fortunate to be placed with a Title I Reading Specialist who was also a Caucasian resident from the town who knew no other language but English (she only knew the occasional phrase and words). She was sent to a Marie Carbo Reading Curriculum conference held in the area where this particular program was focused for ESL students and/or moderate-severe native English language issues. Due to the funds to buy such a program (which is an incomprehensive issue that I hope changes in the near future as we as educators speak for the children and adults for these needs) only one set was bought for the school to be used. None of the K-6 regular classroom teachers were dispersed this reading curriculum let alone knew much about the benefits or how it works etc. The goals were to focus on the improvements of literacy and language through fluency and comprehension in short periods of time using synchronized audio and interesting literature for the students to readily follow along with. The program focuses on three main enhancements- memory: which is enhanced through interest of literature; synchronization: where the student uses visual and audio senses to accomplish these tasks; and chunking: groups of words together. The students and teachers have opportunities to practice out loud together reading, reciting, and also thinking critically about whatever story or topic is addressed. While gaining these successful experiences and now reading this article, On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research by Firth & Wagner, I wish I would have thought to create more realistic and “natural” conversational experiences to expand their language growth in so many different social experiential genres.
While being face to face or even audio experiences for an ESL/EFL person, they are able to see expression, hear intonation to give context clues towards a comprehensive conversation/experience. Also how social interaction is important to show private emotions that can change any conversation from one direction to the next. The example in this article- when the two individuals were talking about what the genre of material the ESL person reads. Native speakers, who are willing and patient to guide a successful comprehensive conversation, can become teachers without even knowing it to help non-native speakers successfully engage in the art of another language. As an educator this can be a great strategy that can be analyzed more thoroughly during any genre of communication. I feel that it should be respected on the same critical learning level of analyzing a second language, such as English-with writing, reading, reciting, acting, etc. Sociologically, citizens of their ancestor countries are still deciding to leave or travel to English speaking countries where in many cases becomes a critical need for communicating on many different levels all for one goal- to get what they need to survive and/or achieve a purpose. While focusing on the United States in America, I have seen and read about teachers trying to promote this genre of linguistics where it can be a losing battle when it comes to economic support from government officials who do not believe in any other language being spoken in society, schools, entertainment, etc except for English due to their own personal racisms or whatever their gripe is about it.
I would like to see sociolinguistic-curriculums added to help all speakers of English, both non-native and native, become a “normal science” or shall I say apart of an educational curriculum in all schools to benefit all while expanding on many other topics such as culture, beliefs, etc. Being anESL individual does not mean you have a handicap against conversations native English speaking people- you’re a LEARNER…and as educators we need to foster that mentality to everyone- including the learners themselves. I loved the line that Language involves more than one person- and I feel that it is not something that many people think of- in other words I think it’s perceived as more of an art and not as a communicative interactive tool with the world. It’s nice to read about NNS having the capabilities of becoming a “superior and controller” of conversations rather than only being viewed as an info gatherer with a NS.
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