Week 6-ESL writing

Culture, Context and Writing

We again get a different definition of culture in the Hinkel chapter, which reinforces the idea that culture is not a concrete thought it changes and differs from person to person. Hinkel defines culture as “the pattern of meanings embodied in symbolic forms, including actions, utterances, and  meaningful objects of various kinds, by virtue of which individuals communicate with one another and share their experiences conceptions and beliefs.”  He also says that successful communication depends on sociocultural factors and underlying matters in society and that people “express meaning to realize a social goal.” Language is a way to express goals within a society and personally. I am currently enrolled in English 241, the history of the English language and I am  amazed about how much I did not know about the language I speak every day, the language I depend on to communicate and survive. Learning about how the English language came to be and how it works compared to other languages is really eye opening. I never realized how different languages actually are in means of syntax and the makeup of cultural differences in the language.

Coming up with a definition for culture has been difficult for us to come up with, everyone has a different concept of what culture means and what culture does. With this being said it will be tricky to characterize culture in the second language classroom, especially because there can be various cultures in one classroom. The students who are learning English as a second language are dependent on the teacher to represent culture effectively. Even if the goal of the class is not learning culture these ESL students are going to learn a significant amount about the culture. In the study Hinkel talks about these students changing their identity while learning more about the culture. These students changed everything from their looks to their names to be immersed into the culture, even though they have been in the country for a long time.

When it comes to ESL writing in the classroom as a pre-service teacher I found it disheartening that NES subjects thought that ESL student’s writings were less effective compared to their own writings. Even though this is off-putting it does make sense. These students come from languages that have a completely different syntax than the language they are learning. With planning, writing and revising ESL writers are struggling. This is good information to know as a pre-service ESL teacher although it is not fair to judge an ESL student without reviewing their work or comparing an ESL student to their NES peers.  

Week 5: Kang's study, A Step from Heaven

I was excited to read Dr. Kang’s study because I have been in three of her TESOL classes and she was the first teacher I had in any TESOL class. Even though I have had Dr. Kang in all of these classes I have never read her published work and I was very curious to examine her work. When I read the title of her study Korean-Immigrant Parents’ Support of Their American-Born Children’s Development and Maintenance of the Home Language I got excited all over again because being an Early Childhood pre-service teacher I always find myself interested in the child, even in class I picture classroom scenarios in an early childhood setting. So needless to say I was looking forward to reading Dr. Kang’s study and I was happy this was assigned to us and that Dr. Kang is going to come into class to discuss it with us. How many articles have we read for countless classes where we never get to ask follow up questions to the author? Today we will get to talk about the article with the author and discuss her work.

Pairing Dr. Kang’s study with A Step from Heaven took what Dr. Kang wrote about and made it real. I pictured Young Ju as a child in these very real households. Last week we read about immigrant narratives and the fear that many have about the loss of identity in a new country and both Kang’s study and A Step from Heaven address this concern. It was interesting to me that Kang suggests that families reflect their language use and teaching strategies in order for their children to obtain and maintain their home language which can be a challenge. This is a major challenge for second language learners because they are living in America and feel like that is a part of their identity now but they still want to hold on to the other side of their identity. It can be confusing for children as we saw in the case of Young Ju. Young Ju did not want to seem “weird” or “different” around her American friends and her parents fear she is losing her Korean heritage. At the same time Young Ju and her mother have many other concerns such as her father’s alcoholism and poverty. I like how the book made it seem real, all of the situations and immigration hardships were true with what we have been studying in class. The book and study went hand in hand and I am looking forward to discussing it with Dr. Kang!

Questions for Dr. Kang

How can immigrant parents successfully advocate a new language and culture while still cultivating their first language and culture?  Is it important for both parents to speak both languages to the child or like in Mrs. Moon’s case is it enough to have just 1 parent speak the second language?