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.
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