Raising cultural awareness and critical pedagogy: Brown ch. 26 & Kumar 11&12

Raising cultural awareness and critical pedagogy: Brown ch. 26 & Kumar 11&12

 

One of my favorite quotes of all time is Ghandi’s quote “You must be the change you wish to see in the world” and I really appreciated that Brown’s chapter began with this attitude. It really set the tone for how much I have grown to appreciate my choice in profession and how I actually will be having an impact on a variety of student’s lives. I am sure that in other professions many people have the opportunity to instill new ideas into the people around them, but with teaching a language it is the absolute perfect opportunity to embrace new cultures and teach how important the appreciation of each individual person because ultimately they make up the world around us.

I really enjoyed the section about “hot topics” in the classroom because it was a good eye opener and also gave pointers on how to avoid mass chaos among the students. By giving all sides of a viewpoint and ensuring everyone has the right to a different opinion is sometimes hard to foster but is ultimately the most appropriate way to avoid any type of cultural collision. I could not agree more with the idea of having a respectful and safe classroom environment and that is an aspect I will stress thoroughly from the moment I enter my room. I think that the title “agents for change” is inspiring because it really is an intrinsic motivation about having this profession because we as teachers may not be able to fight every racist battle we have in this country but we are definitely pushing ourselves and our students in the right direction.

I thought that Kumar’s chapters did a good job of summarizing everything that we learning in ENG 344 last semester. It pointed out the importance of avoiding standardization, accepting minority language speakers, ensuring social relevance to each individual, among many other things.  Also, the “Linguistic Laughs” section on page 259 made me laugh out loud because these types of situations happen all the time and it is important that students understand that everyone is growing together and it could happen to anyone but should be interpreted as a learning experience. I really look forward to learning much more about my students’ cultural backgrounds so that I may be more culturally conscious and grow to appreciate our differences.

Readings for Week 11

I think it is really important to discuss Brown’s chapter on integrating all of the language skills into one whole language approach. Although I can understand the importance of delving into each skill individually especially if one needs more help for a certain class, the best way to learn the language is integrating the skills and incorporating all of them so that the student is more prepared for any situation. Of the suggested models of skills integration, I think that my favorite was experiential learning because it is the best way to be sure to incorporate both the left and right brained learners. This type of learning is also thought to be more natural and realistic which is the best mode for ELL who are faced with language challenges daily because they are immersed in the English speaking culture.  More specifically, I think that the language experience approach is a great way to use the personal stories of the students and through these teaching both grammar points as well as vocabulary. This approach is great because students are sure to immediately be engaged because they had the experience happen to them and are most likely interested in how to have better handled a certain situation.

In Kumar chapter 9, the author stresses how important a student’s understanding of contextualized discourse and how shapes their communicative competence. I think this topic is very relevant especially for students who come to the United States because in our culture there are many topics that are considered taboo to discuss and are often discovered too late. For example, currently the debates are a hot topic in the United States but it is still considered rude to ask another person who they are voting for.  It may not be this way in certain other countries so it could start a sour relationship from the beginning if the language learner does not understand the harm in asking this question.

I think that the main importance of integrating the learning skills is that every student is likely to find their strengths and weaknesses and finally learn where it is they need the most special attention so that they can ensure a more productive learning process. More specifically, I really agreed with Kumar’s quote “the integration of learning skills has the potential to offer different opportunities for different types of learners” in Chapter 10. This is also beneficial because the students can see how their classmates get through the areas they may struggle with and begin to adapt their own learning process to be more successful. All in all, I think that learning how to integrate the four language skills in different exciting ways is one of the most important ways that a teacher can help their students.

Week Ten Readings

For week ten’s reading in Brown chapter 22, I thought the arguments brought up a variety of different viewpoints that were very interesting to discover. For example, the idea of teaching grammar was argued which reminded me that I had never even considered excluding grammar instruction. It becomes hard to ignore all previous personal experiences when considering the best option for your future student because it is easiest to refer to what you’re comfortable with. I understand the pros of just approaching language learning globally and expecting the students to learn inductively, but I don’t think this top down approach is necessary appropriate for everyone.

Since each individual learns differently and takes away certain ideas from certain lessons, I think that like we have previously discussed, it is important to approach language teaching in a variety of different styles. I think that avoiding teaching grammar all together is not the way to go especially when there is a time constraint, because students will not understand why they are saying the things that they do. I think an understanding of the principles is necessary because it ensures a more wholesome knowledge. I think that when Brown questions what environment to present grammar in, I felt strongly against teaching a separate grammar class. Cultural references and comparisons should be made to help the student learn better with grammar lessons.

Brown presented many helpful suggestions about presenting grammar and I think that the method that worked best for me during my Spanish learning process was the chart. It really helped me organize my verb translations and the idea of organization made the process much more approachable.

I liked Kumar’s point about Language Awareness of Language Teachers because I could really see many comparisons between myself and the characteristics described. I liked when he quoted Van Lier’s thoughts on that teachers shouldn’t be worried more about taking more language or grammar courses but should be more preoccupied with talking together with their students. I could not agree more with this statement because I am a strong believer of having an open and comfortable learning atmosphere in which my students can feel confident when approaching me with a question or comment.

Week 9: teaching of reading and writing

The past four chapters in Brown (Ch.18-21) have been really enlightening to me because I was able to compare my language learning experience and use the comparison to help me better relate to my future students. I am really glad that I chose to learn a language prior to pursuing a TESOL minor because I feel so much better prepared to teach and can sympathize with my students with the various aspects of language learning such as speaking, listening, writing and reading.

Brown’s chapter 20 was really helpful because I know how difficult it is for certain students to thrive in reading in their first language so it is important to learn how to teach students helpful techniques when reading in their target language. In our various discussions on top-down and bottom-up processing, I have been able to explore the benefits of each method and form my own opinion on the best method to use. In my own language learning process, I felt most comfortable using the bottom up approach because I like to have all of the required tools (such as grammar structures and a basic understanding of vocabulary) before I tackle the reading process. After taking a better look at the top down approach, I definitely see the benefits of this method as well because it reaches out to the more global learners who like to see the big picture and try to figure out the meaning on their own. I think it is important to utilize a combination of both approaches because it is helpful to see the text in its authentic form so that learner’s can figure out the meaning without it being changed into a simpler form.

I like the idea of incorporating a variety of genres when teaching a language because it previews the learners to the different types of literature that they will be exposed to during their learning process. Although in my experience I found certain literature types to be much more complicated to interpret (such as poetry and other forms of creative writing) I also appreciated the challenge because it required me to go beyond just reading because I needed to research the time period it was written and the cultural connections that could give it another meaning. It is also important to teach techniques to acquire better reading skills so that the learner doesn’t become overwhelmed and can scan, skim and analyze effectively.

In regards to writing in the second language, I always found this to be the easiest in my personal experience so it was interesting to read about how Brown felt was the best method to teaching writing. I really liked his perspective of the more important aspect of writing was the process not the product. Although it may be the easiest way to simply grade a students’ product, it should be equally as important to reflect on the process they went through when writing. As a writer myself, I think another aspect of writing that is especially important is the writer’s voice. As a teacher, I think that the voice of a writer is another aspect to take in account when grading a piece of work and should always be appreciated. In order for a student to develop their voice, a personal journal is a great tool to use so that they can write in a safe environment and try out different techniques.

Week 8: Teaching of Listening and Speaking

I thought Brown’s chapter on teaching listening was really interesting because I can really relate to how difficult it is to learn how to listen an appropriately understand the locators intentions of the conversation and I really had no idea how to teach those ideas. When he suggests the multiple ways to teach listening skills they really captured my attention because I will one day need to use these techniques in order to ensure successful communication. For example, his suggestion of considering the form of the listener’s responses caught my attention the most because the learner’s responses really are a great indicator of how well they understood the utterance in the first place. I slightly disagree with this idea to some extent because with my learning experience, I feel that I always fully understand listening portions in a conversation but occasionally it is difficult to create a response without some minor errors so I don’t think that would be the best indicator.

Thus, Brown’s chapter on teaching speaking was equally as interesting because I am struggling with proving my fluency with the OPI exam and I thought it had some good pointers for language learners. Like we previously discussed in class, I think that the concept of language ego has a big impact on language learners and it is a difficult barrier to get passed since it is really on a more personal level. I thought that Brown’s most important principle for teaching speaking skills was providing appropriate feedback and correction. Although I feel that this depends directly on the learner and how they are most comfortable with the idea of feedback, I think it is still incredibly important for a learner to advance in their proficiency.

When reading Kumar’s chapter about teaching learner autonomy I couldn’t help but reflect back on the chapters that I presented on teaching learning styles and having students continually take self tests about their most appropriate learning styles and that by realizing how each individual learner has a different learning style, will best impact how a learner is successful in a language classroom.