Monday, April 29, 2013

Week 16

Towards A Transformative
April 4th, 2013

             Reading the articles and the discussion being made and what we have learned throughout this semester, all links to this week’s reading on really looking into to what is truly suitable for our students’ learning of a second language and how it should be address. Reading the articles, I was reflecting on my own experiences and the struggles I had when I was in school. 
            When I was in elementary it was from kindergarten to 3rd grade that I had taken Spanish. However, I remember having such a difficulty learning English. I really did not had interest in learning English because I remember I was been pushed to learn it and made me dislike English even more. In the article by Lin, she discussed that teachers should not only be teaching English to students, but open and extend their thinking of English and its culture in other ways. 
            We as future teachers and from our own personal experience, have to be very sensitive and really look out for what is best for our students. Learning from this class and the difficulties ELL students have to face, as teacher we need to overcome these challenges and be passionate to help these students because at we are a fundamental key for these students’ learning.     

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Week 15

Language Variations, Language Ideologies
April 22, 2013 
            Reading the articles; particularly “English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States”, made me think about my experience when I was trying to speak English. The articles makes good points about how even English has many variations in how it is spoken. There are so many Englishes with different accent in them too. This made me think about the hold idea of ‘Standard English’ and how it is also another variation of English. My question is why is it that when someone is trying to learn English and are uttering their accent, there are so many negative factors linked to it. Is it because society is discriminated those who are not consider ‘white Caucasian’ or are their other attributes to why people who are trying to learn English are treated badly. 
             For example, the article that was required to read for class was about a customer who was trying to explain to the cashier about his change. The cashier, instead of being of an assistance he was mocking the customer, who had an accent when trying to speak English. So, is their more to having an accent to who the person is for other to discriminate or treat them bad? 
            When I was trying to learn English, I remember having a similar experience were people pointed out my accent. They would either make fun of me or make me feel so uncomfortable because I still had an accent. Instead of this being a motivation to speak English, it push me into not to talk or say anything. I was just such a difficult time because when I did have to speak in English it was just so difficult to be able to express myself. I remember taking me such a long time to try to speak English again. I believe that if people would see or understand that everyone has different accents in the world and that even English itself has many accents spoken by people who are native of that language.  

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Week 13

Multilingualism and World Englishes
 Monday, April 8th 
               Reading the articles and the textbook, I came to reflect and analyzed that we should really encourage and help our students understand that everyone learns and speaks English differently. We need to understand and make very clear that not everyone is the same, not everyone speaks one way of English. Everyone has accents and everyone has their own individual variety of English. We need to help our students be open-minded about the idea that there is different type of English. In the article, Exploring Linguistics Diversity through World Englishes, I really like the idea of how to demonstrate, explore, explain, and discuss with students what is English. I believe it is very important that students are aware that there are so many ways in which English is spoken. Yes, there is the “standard English” that everyone has to know and understand, but because of communication, business, education, and so on. However, students need to know, explore, and understand that even native speakers of English speak English very differently from other native speakers. We have to make clear distinguishing and discuss between “standard English” and English. Explain about the different varieties of English spoken by people, but at the same time creating a positive outlook that English can and is spoken in many different ways by native speakers.
            Additionally, reading the articles and discussing about making English language learners comfortable practicing their English, I believe it is also very important to create an atmosphere that is okay to make mistake, that it’s okay to have an accent. I remember when I first started speaking English it was so very difficult for me. I never had the experience or teachers who encourage to practiced my English, or that it was okay to make mistakes and have an accent. I wished I could have had a class in which I could have more practice and be encouraged by teachers to speak English. However, when I did speak English, it was when I started working. It was such a terrible experience. I remember times in which I just did not want to speak English because I was being dissed by my coworkers or made fun of because I had an accent or difficulties express myself in English. I believe that schools should have classes that help ELL students not experience things like this, but be well prepared to face the world. We need to really create and be supportive of students who are trying to learn a new language because people outside of class are not supportive. And as future teachers, we need to help these students understand that it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to have accents in English, because everyone speaks a different English.