Week 6: Hinkel, Silvia and Kubota

It was interesting to read about the differences and similarities between NSL and ESL writing. Silva's article explains some of the differences ESL students can encounter and mentions some ways to help teachers aid their own students to notice these differences by applying it to the classroom. Teachers need to focus on sentence structure, create strategies to help with unfamiliar textual patterns, providing realistic strategies, help construct complex sentences, help ESL students increase their lexical resources, etc. Through writing and reading, ESL students can learn more about their own needs and increase their skills. These readings helped me see the importance of teaching diverse students how to explore their own culture and language as well as their second language and culture. Their culture depends on their language. Hinkel mentions contrastive rhetoric and the interesting variations of literacy as well as the importance of teaching students about cultural stereotypes. We need to help them become aware of these stereotypes and help them see the good and bad about these views. We need to aid students because no one else will be encouraged to help them realize how difficult it can be to assimilate to a new culture without receiving negative views. As an ESL student myself, I have encountered good and bad experiences but one needs to learn to overcome the bad ones and learn to understand how people have different views and try to avoid negativity. Also, as language teachers we need to help students connect with their own life experiences to the new culture. Kubota's article can clearly help us see cultural differences using the Japanese culture as an example. Teachers need to be open and encourage students to examine the cultural differences as a group. All three authors suggest teaching students how to reflect and examine the differences between dominant and minority cultures and help affirm cultural heritage. We need to help students embrace their own heritage as well as encourage them to examine the differences between both cultures. These students have to learn to assimilate to the new culture, so by helping them see the differences and similarities as well as stereotypes, they will be able to facilitate their assimilation to the new culture.

Week 5: Korean Immigrants

Dr. Kang’s article allows me to reflect on the importance of bilingualism with the aid of parental involvement. We usually have Spanish courses that can help Spanish speaking students retain their Spanish, but there are not many Chinese, Korean, Indian or Japanese courses in schools that can help these minority students remain bilingual. This is why we need the help of parents to help their kids maintain their first language at home. As a future language educator, I can help by allowing students to share their language and culture in class as well as learn some of their language in class to help them maintain bilingualism. The study focuses on parents in professional fields wanting their kids to remain bilingual. These parents know the importance of being bilingual in a professional field because it increases their chances for a better job and allows them to communicate with a wider range of people compared to monolingual people in a professional field. Many of these Korean participants were college professors, but what if the parents worked as store clerks, cooks or janitors, (as question for Dr. Kang) do you think these parents would be as highly encouraged to help their kids remain bilingual? Do you think there would be a difference between careers, or would their encouragement for their kids to remain bilingual be the same? I was wondering about this question throughout the article. I guess it also depends on the family and their traditions (like Young Ju in A Step from Heaven).  Many of these parents wanted their kids to be bilingual so they can communicate with family members in Korea. I would also like to know if there were other language struggles for these kids to become bilingual that you were not able to add to the article? 

Young Ju’s family wanted their kids to be bilingual so the kids can communicate with them and help them socialize with Americans. As an immigrant myself, I encountered some of the things Young Ju experienced, such as helping my mom translate and socialize with immigration services and the mainstream society. Unlike Young Ju, I was not encouraged to be bilingual and retain my Spanish, because my mom felt kind of embarrassed if people heard us speaking Spanish, but I would have to speak Spanish anyways to communicate with my mom and translate for her. I enjoyed reading this book (A Step from Heaven) so much, not only does it help me realize the problems of a Korean immigrant living in the U.S, but also lets me reflect on the fact that I have to realize my kids can encounter several struggles outside of my classroom, such as I would not know how their families treat them (only if I would decide to intrude), the language problems they stumble upon with Americans when they need to get important documents to follow U.S. laws, such as speaking with the immigration services, the need for a better living condition, if they are eating healthy meals outside of school, or even the cultural shocks they encounter. Every kid brings their own culture and experiences to the classroom, as a language teacher, I need to be considerate to every aspect of every child’s life. This book is so inspirational because it helps me realize the problems ELL students can encounter outside of the classroom. Even though it is not an autobiography of the author, she mentions she has encountered many of the feelings that come with assimilating to a new culture. I like how the author embraces the Korean language in the book, by mentioning words such as: Halbugi, Halmoni, Apa and Uhmma, as well as using Korean and kid language such as when the teacher says “Tees es Yung”, to picture how the child interprets the English language in her own words. I also like how the author writes the book from when the family is in Korea until she reaches college. It will probably use this book as a source someday.

Week 4: Social identity and Investment

I enjoyed reading the articles. I believe many of the ideas mentioned in them related to my life as an ELL. A quote that really related to myself in middle school was in Norton's language and identity article by Duff: "Silence protected them [ELLs] from humiliation". I was that shy ELL kid that would rarely raise their hand to avoid embarrassment because I was proficient in the English language. I knew some English but not native proficiency. Norton discusses that there is an unequal relations of power that language learners are trying to fit in. I liked how she mentions that a persona negotiates through language throughout a variety of sites at different points of times. I denied access to the powerful social network that allowed me to speak. I was really hesitant to make a mistake. I would only speak out if the teacher would ask me questions. During group time, the native speakers would rarely ask for my opinion because they knew I was proficient in English. I would try to speak, but sometimes I would not invest in trying to create a social distance between me and them. There was times where I would say an incorrect utterance in English and feel embarrassed like Eva. Eveytime this happened, my motivation would decrease, so I would start speaking less and less in front of the mainstream classrooms. Eva and Martina's journey as language learners have led them to experience their own social identity in a powerful social network. Even though I cannot recall being marginalized as badly as these ladies, I did feel separation between social relations of power. Because of the lack of proficiency in the target language, I felt they were the dominant group. In my ESL classes, I would speak normally because I would feel comfortable with my English proficiency. I knew most of these kids were at my level or lower in English proficiency. Constructing my own social identity was not a priority especially if it was with native speakers. I would always encounter social interactions with native speakers but it was minimal, because I would try to avoid it.
The classroom-based research discussed in Norton's article is a great way to keep active by carrying out social interaction with their local community. These are great ways to increase social identity and understanding the difference in social interactions between the native and non-native groups. They are able to analyze and examine, as well as compare data, issues that were difficult to resolve. ELLs are able to reflect on their experiences and examine any breakdowns they encounter. I liked this list because cultural issues in social interactions will occur to ELL students and these can help them overcome difficulties in social practices between them and native speakers. Americanization and narrative identities are discussed in Pavlenko's article, which got me remember how I was as a new immigrant in the United States. It was not easy for a mom, a 12 year old and a 6 year old to come to a new country by ourselves. We encountered so many difficulties, but now we have assimilated to the new culture and language. I have enjoyed learning about social identity because I had never analyzed the topic in depth.