Brown chapter 23 and 24

Assessment is one of important aspects of teachings. Assessment is for the students to see the results of students’ success. In chapter 23 and 24 of Brown, he talked about different kinds of assessments. In chapter 23, it talked about the issues of large scale proficiency test. Personally, I don’t think standardized test for ELL students is beneficial for students. I feel like standardized test is making teachers to teach what the state wants students to learn instead fulfilling students’ needs. I went to observe in 3^rd grade bilingual class. The teacher told me that she was trying to teach that relate to standardized test because many of her students did poorly on the standardized test. It seems like schools or districts believe that assessment is the only way to see the students’ achievement. One of the reasons why I think standardize testing is not beneficial for students is that its reliability. Many ELL students get nervous when they take standardized testing. I remember I had to take standardized testing and I was so nervous and everything went blank. I never had to take a test like standardized testing and it made be very nervous.  Also, standardized testing can mislead the teachers’ lesson because they might focus too much on getting a good grade on standardizing test.

Brown chapter 24 talked about different assessments as well. It talked about alternative assessment. I personally like alternative assessment because I can see students’ progress and things that they learned. I remember I had to do lots of journals when I was in ESL. Doing journals is one of things that I hate. I didn’t understand why I had to do journals. However, after I am taking all these classes, I realized the importance of journals, portfolios and others.  

As more I read these chapters, I realized that I need to use different kinds of assessment. I have to be careful to not stick with one assessment and use variety of assessments for students. Also, I have to teach students to be comfortable to take tests because many ELL students get nervous when they take tests. What can I do as teacher to develop more assessment for students? How do we know if some particular assessment works or not?

Brown9-11 and Kumar 13

Brown chapter nine is about how to design curriculum for students to test their proficiency level and talked about importance f systematic process. Brown chapter ten and eleven is about how to make lesson plan and how to use technologies and materials to use in the classroom. These chapters focused on strategies to have individualized lesson plan. For the past few weeks, Brown focused on different methods for ESL classrooms. However, I was always wondered how to use those methods into lesson plan. Also, in Brown chapter, it talked about the different ways to prepare to know students proficiency. When I was in 6^th grade, my bilingual teachers never asked the students their proficiency level. The first day of bilingual class, the teachers asked bilingual students their English proficiency levels. They didn’t even test my brother’s and my English proficiency level. It was problematic because there were some students whose English proficiency level was low or high. My 6^th grade bilingual classmates and I still talked about our memory when we were in 6^th grade. We all felt that we didn’t learn anything or it was beneficial for us while we were in 6^th grade.  In Brown chapter eleven, it talked about textbook analysis and how to use right textbook in class. Sometimes, it will be hard to provide right textbook for ESL classroom because of financial conflict. Some schools don’t provide right textbook because of money. Therefore, it is hard to fine right textbook in class with small amount of money. When I was reading these chapters, there were few questions that came into my mind. How can we use right textbook for ESL classroom if there was a financial conflict? How we analyze the right textbook if we don’t know the students proficiency level?

In Kumar chapter thirteen, it talked about monitoring teaching acts by using M & M observation scheme. The M&M observation scheme can be used as a frame of preference and have 10 step procedures. M&M scheme for classroom observation can offer new way to use self evaluation and self-analyzing. M&M scheme is a great way to develop different lessons from practicing and analyzing and evaluating the lesson. 

Kumar 11, 12 and Brown 26

The readings are about how teachers can teach controversial issues in classroom and teachers need to teach importance social issues.  This chapter was very interesting because I can relate this chapter. When I was in Junior high school, there was high tension between Japanese and Korean students in ESL class. The reason is that Korea was ruled over by Japan for about hundred years. When I went to junior high, my Korean classmates and I didn't like the fact that I had to study with Japanese students. I thought my ESL teacher will solve the tension between Japanese and Korean students. However, she didn't  Instead, she made us interact with each other during the lesson and solve problems together. Later of that year, I realized that it wasn't the Japanese students’ fault of what happened in the past. History is just history. I learned this just by interacting and learn the language together. I asked my teacher that why she didn't try to mention controversial issues between Korean and Japanese students. She told me that if she talks more about controversial issues, the tension between Korean and Japanese students might get deeper that she doesn't want to risk it. Usually, many students realized that it is not Japanese students’ fault of what happened in the past by interacting with others and realized that they are the same.  I believe it is essential roles to knowledge social issues and it can possibly change students’ lives. Many ESL teachers focused on teaching the language, the essential of social issue can easily missed. If I didn't learn to interact with Japanese students, I would still prejudge Japanese and still hate them. I think teachers need to knowledge students about social issues instead of rightness of problem. In my opinion, I believe it is easy to bring up the controversial issue and political issues. However, can we bring up the topic something still relates to students’ countries, something that two countries have problems with? How can we teach how to respect each other’s opinion when the students have strong belief in it? 

Propsal 2

After last week, I wanted to learn more about integrating language skills. I never had thought deeply of importance and different ways to integrate language skills. I wanted to write advantages and disadvantages of integrating skills. However, if I included the disadvantages and disadvantages, the paper will be too long. At the beginning of the research paper, I wanted to talk about importance of integrating language skills. First article that I read was written by Akram and Malik. An article is a research about the problems to ELT and some suggestions to solve these problems.  The article talked about how many ESL teachers are focusing on teaching one language domain. Also, it is more challenging to integrate language skills when the teacher is non native speaker. The article also talked about CLT and SLA. CLT is to develop students’ communicative competence. CLT also teaches language that can be used in real world. In the real life, we use more than one language domain for communication. Integrating the four skills can emphasize the focus of realistic language. SLA is how people learn second language. The article talked more about the problems of CLT and SLA and their solutions. SLA’s and CLT’s problem is the students can fail the learning in CLT and SLA depends on their culture and social factors. Integrating different four language skills can overcome these cultural problems that ELL students have.

The second article is about different methods of integrating skills in the ESL and EFL classroom. This article is written by Rebecca Oxford. The article talks about segregated skill instruction that have advantages of integration language skills. Segregated skill instruction is when language learning is separate from content learning and focus on segregated language skills. Within segregated language instruction, there are two forms of integrated skill instruction. They are content based and task based instruction. Content based instruction is when students practice the entire language domains while learning content. Task based instruction is when students learn through different tasks. The article talked about how it is necessary to learn different ways to integrate skills and reflect on their approach and choose carefully on textbooks and technologies.

The third article is written by Penelope. It is about how to integrate language domains. The article talked more on advantages of integrating different language domains. Many students will learn different types of language and how meaningful it is. Also, the integrating different language domains can interact with other subject and creates motivation to learn language by interaction rather than just knowing the language.  By integrating different domains, the teacher can teach multiple skills at one time. 

Akaram, Annela, and Ammela Malik. "Integration of Language Learning Skills in Second Language Acquisition." International Journal of Arts and Sciences 3.14 (n.d.): 231-40. InternationalJournal.org. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.

·         Oxford, Rebecca. "CAL: Digests: Integrated Skills in the ESL/EFL Classroom." CAL: Digests: Integrated Skills in the ESL/EFL Classroom. CAL, Sept. 2001. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0105oxford.html>.

·         Penelope. "An Integrated Approach to Language Learning." Yahoo! Contributor Network. N.p., Sept. 2006. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://voices.yahoo.com/an-integrated-approach-language-learning-77279.html?cat=4>.

Kumar Chapter seven and eight and Brown

Kumar chapter seven is about language awareness from two countries of United States and Britain. Also, it talked about whole language movement and it was interesting. It is really interesting to learn about language movement. In Korean education, many educators focus on teaching content than teach the language and social aspect and others. For example, Korean students learn statistics when they are 8^th grade and they have to study for 14 hours of the day to study the content.  However, Korean students lack at developing critical thinking and Korean educators do not fulfill individual student’s needs. If Korean education fulfills individuals’ needs, rate of suicide within secondary students will go down or many Korean students don’t have desire to go to different country to learn the language. Also, if educators focus on social development, rates of bullying can decrease.  Kumar quoted, “Language is intricately woven into the fabric of human life. It is closely linked to the relationships between mother and child, between self and society, between thought and action, between war and peace” (pg 156). It is important to think as educator to use language instead of misuse and abuse the language. Many educators are so focus on teaching the content and the grammatical language instead of fulfilling individual’s needs. This makes some ELL students drawn away from the language. How can we constantly test ourselves to assure students needs? How do we know if we are used to some curriculums? How we focus on the students?

Kumar chapter eight and Brown book talk about heuristics. Heuristics is a word that I am unfamiliar with. According to Kumar, he stated that “Heuristics refers to the process of self-discovery on the part of the learner. It also refers to a particular method of teaching--” (176). Kumar chapter eight talks about how the students can learn the language from their own than following direction. However, I was thinking that it can be problematic for some students. Many Asians students are so used to following directions than learning on their own. Therefore, they can be more stressed for the students. Some methods can work for some students. Educators have to think about the method that they are using can fit the students cultural values and their needs. However, should educators change methods because of students cultural values or should educators make students to adapt the methods? What is changing methods can stop students from developing? Sometimes, adapting and changing can be effective for students. Are there negative aspects of Heuristics? Heuristics can be positive but there isn’t any perfect method. I believe that as educator, we constantly need to create new methods.  

Reading and Writing in Brown

             Brown chapter twenty and twenty one is about different strategies between reading and writing to Second language learner. In chapter twenty, it talked about strategies for reading comprehension.  I believe reading comprehension is one of the hardest tasks to achieve as English Language Learners. Including myself, I know many ELLs struggle with reading. When I was in ESL, reading was very easy for me. Many ESL classes that I took focus on reading with short paragraphs. However, they didn't focus different strategies for reading comprehension when the students need to read a long paragraphs or book.  When I took ACT, it was so hard for me to get a good grade on reading. The reason is that I didn't know any strategies to read well. I was so used to read short paragraphs. Therefore, it was difficult for me to understand reading. Through my experiences, many ESL teachers focus on grammar and vocabularies rather than focus in reading and writing. However, there are many tasks to focus on to learn English. It is hard to teach every aspect of language domain. In my opinion, many ELL students don’t have hard time with writing. The reason is that it is easy to teach writing. In brown chapter twenty one had many different strategies to teach writing.  One of interesting strategies is using both top-down and bottom-up strategies. I thought top-down strategies might not helpful for the students.

             When I was reading Brown chapters, I was so happy to see these different strategies of different language domains. When I was reading these chapters, I was thinking, what makes a perfect teaching? Is fulfill all these language domains can be helpful? As time goes on, these different strategies should change and adapt for ELL students. 

Listening and Speaking

 Chapter eighteen of Brown’s book is about how to teach listening. Brown talked about things that make listening difficult and how to teach listening. It was interesting to see different ways of teach listening depends on the student’s proficiency. For a long time, I thought that watching American dramas and comic shows will help ELL’s listening skills. I don’t remember how I learned to develop listening skills. I watched lots of movies and dramas in English without the subtitles. Some of my friends still have problems when some Americans speak very fast. However, for me, that wasn’t a problem. I could understand even though when people were speaking fast.

Chapter nineteen of Brown’s book is about things that make speaking difficult and how to teach speaking skills. One of interesting things that make speaking difficult was performance variables. I see many ELL students use fillers of “you know.” I had a friend who used filler of “You know” for every sentence. One of the problems that I have for a long time is using gender pronouns. In Korean, there are no gender pronouns. Therefore, when I talk in English, I always mix up with using gender pronouns. I still don’t know how to fix it. I tried to fix it and I failed. I had friends who are Native speaker. I thought talking with Native speakers would fix the problem. However, my friends who are Native speaker have problems with gender pronouns because of me. In chapter nineteen, it talked about pronunciation. Many people are eager to not have accents. I believe that having accents isn’t a bad thing as long as people can understand and communicate. However, many people assume that people with accents cannot speak English very well. In chapter nineteen, it talked about how to treat errors when ELL students speak English. I believe that correct errors are better than ignoring it. ELL students might feel embarrassed at that moment. However, if a teacher will make environment of making errors and get corrected errors are not embarrassing, it will be good. My boyfriend started to correct mistakes when I spoke with him. At first, I was embarrassed. However, after a while, I wasn’t and I fixed most of the problems that I had.  When I was reading chapter nineteen, there were some questions that came up in my mind. Is it right or wrong to teach students with accents? What is perfect pronunciation? Is perfect pronunciation with or without accents?

In the article, How do I support a student’s first language when I don’t speak the language, is about a teacher named Dolores who teach English to eight students who speak different languages. I loved how Dolores makes her students to greet each other with their own language. I loved how Dolores emphasizes the importance of their L1 language. It is hard to emphasize and have supportive environment to use L1. However, Dolores gave good examples.

Kumar and Brown

Brown chapter four is about twelve principles of L2 learning. One of interesting principle was principle four. Principle four is intrinsic motivation. The ELL students need intrinsic motivation to learn. The author further talked about how we need to motivate our students. Before I went into Bilingual education, I thought most of ELL students are motivated. However, I realized that some of the students are not motivated because of their personal problems or lack of their parents involvement. In one of bilingual classes, we watched this clip about Hispanic students. I was very surprised to see this clip because I thought all ELL students are motivated . I thought that it is important for teacher to be motivated order to make students to be motivated. My ESL teacher was so motivated to help me when I wasn’t interested in school work. However, because of her motivation, I became motivated. When I was reading these principles, I realized importance of these principles. However, I also thought that it is important for the teachers to constantly think about these principles and work hard to create good learning opportunities for ELL students. Chapter sixteen of Brown’s book is similar with chapter four. It talked about various principles and strategies to help ELI students. In Brown’s book, it talked about different ways to develop the self-awareness for students. It was really interesting because I did not think about how to self awareness for the students. In English 345 class, we learned about variety methods to teach ELL students. However, I wasn’t sure how to figure the methods that would work for each student. I realized that I can use these ways to figure out what kind of methods that I can use in the classroom. I think it is really important to teach strategies in the classroom. When I was an ESL student in high school, many teachers didn’t teach me how to do note-taking. When I went to college, I had hard time how to write notes during lectures. I think many ELL students need to learn 

Kumar chapter three is about maximizing opportunities for ELL learners. This chapter talked about how the teachers can create opportunities for students inside and outside of the classroom. Most of the examples that the author showed are something that I remember learning when I was in ESL. I liked this chapter because it showed the importance of creating learning opportunities for students. However, what if these opportunities aren’t available for some teachers? Some teachers are harder to connect community together outside of school. Some teachers don’t have enough opportunities. . 

Three articles of different method

            The article of Stephen Bax is about how CLT method has led to failure. The author said that the main reason why CLT failed is that because CLT emphasized only on communicative skills but not emphasized on context. Then, author offered different approach which is lexical approach. The author said that “the Lexical Approach is the approach to follow no matter what the context—it will work, and it will work everywhere.” However, I disagree because I don’t think there is a perfect approach that will work on everyone. Also, the reason why CLT failed is that the teacher implemented CLT in a wrong way. How can people make sure that people aren’t going to implemented Lexical Approach differently than it suppose to be when it happened to CLT approach? How can we make sure that the teachers will be well- educated enough to teach Lexical Approach in a right way?

The second article is written by Guangwei Hu. The article is about the failure of CLT in China. The reason why CLT failed in China is that China’s culture and some main principles of CLT clashed against each other. Even though I thought that CLT would work great for the students, I knew that it wouldn’t work for many Asian students. Many Asian countries share similar cultural perspective. I understood why CLT isn’t going to work in China, and CLT might not work in Korea also. However, I think it is too soon to decide if CLT didn’t work in China. I thought CLT would be beneficial for Asian countries because of many Asian education lack communicative skills. However, in my opinion, instead of believing that CLT isn’t working and not using it, the educators can change the method of CLT a little bit, so that it can fit into Chinese cultures.  It will be hard to change cultural perspective in few years. At first, I thought, it will be great for teachers to learn about students. Then, CLT can work. However, I realized that people are used to live their cultural norms. It will take years, maybe decade, to change what they are used to believed in. When I came to United States, I was used to how Korean teachers taught, and it was hard for me to adapt how American teachers taught. After few years, I got used to how American teachers taught. The method that American teachers used to teach me few years ago didn’t work. However, after few years, it worked on me.  As teacher, just because I think it will be right for the students, it doesn’t mean that it is right for the students. However, it will be very difficult to implement CLT into Chinese culture.

The third article that is written by Peter Skehan is about different task of instruction. When I was reading his article, I realized that there are many different approaches that involved task-based. More varieties of different tasks are better for different students. Every student has different needs and learns differently. Every year, the students learn differently. And it is essential for educators to learn that we have to learn and study different methods that fit each student’s needs. 

Brown Chapter 3 and article

First thing that Brown talks about in chapter three is differences between practice and theory. According to Brown, practitioner and theorist are very similar. Then, this chapter talks about different approaches and instructions. The first approach is communicative language teaching (CLT). According to Brown, CLT has three issues; “authenticity, acceptability and adaptability.” CLT is way of teaching to teach all components of communicative competence. In my opinion, CLT is a good approach for students who struggle with communicative language. Many ELL students know grammatical rule. However, they struggle when they have to talk in their target language. During CLT approach, the students can learn BICS and CALP. The next approach is Task Based Language Teaching (TBLT). TBLT teaches the students how to solve communication problems. I believe TBLT is more focused on CALP than BICS. Third approach is Learner-Centered Instruction. Learner-Centered Instruction focuses on the students’ needs and goals of targeted language. Then, there are cooperative learning and interactive learning. Cooperative learning involved Learner-Centered Instruction characteristics. Instead of individuals who achieve goals, cooperative learning is the students need to work with groups to achieve goal. Interactive learning is approach that when the learners interact with each other through orally and written, their communicative abilities will developed. Next approach is whole language education. Whole language education is to teach four skills which are listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Also, whole language education believe that teachers need to teach students not only language but teach social, political or economic problem. Last approach is content based instruction (CBI). CBI is when the teacher teaches the targeted language based on the content. When I read this chapter, there are good approaches/instructions. However, there was one thought came into my mind. Is there any good instruction or bad instruction? Is there a perfect instruction to teach students? I believe that all instructions have disadvantages and advantages.

The article talks about disadvantages and advantages of CLT and TBLT. When I was reading this article, I kept thinking which approach is better. However, this worry just gave me a headache. When I was in ESL, I don’t think my teacher used only CLT or TBLT. I think she used mixture of these two approaches. I think as future teacher, we need to use different approaches to adapt for the students. However, if we use too much methods, I feel like it will confuse the students. 

Chapter one and two of Kumar

Chapter one of Kumar talks about the roles of the teachers. The author said the teacher needs to be passive technicians, reflective practitioners, and trans-formative intellectuals. The authors stated that teacher as passive technicians are when the teachers are using content knowledge rather than teaching. The author stated that “viewing teachers as passive technicians is traditional and is still in vogue in many parts of the world" (pg 9). I agreed with this statement. I believe that many countries especially in Asia, view teachers as passive technicians. In Korea, many people view teacher as passive technicians. Many teachers are so used to pass on the knowledge rather than teaching, I feel like many students are used to learn by passive technicians. In the chapter, the author talked about reflective practitioners. The teachers who are reflective practitioners are more problem-solving teachers to try to help students to learn. The teachers as trans-formative intellectuals are when the teachers need to teach the content and also teach social problems. When I was reading the roles of the teacher, I had a question in my head. Which role of the teacher would be the best? If a student is used to learn by passive technicians, and suddenly the teachers role changed as reflective practitioner, would the student learn better? Then how come many people learned by passive technicians cannot keep up with the reflective practitioners or trans-formative intellectuals?
         Chapter two is about all different types of methods of teaching. Chapter two talked about there are no perfect way of methods that works for every teacher and student. Some of the methods were the same or similar method as the one we talked about in the class. Some of the methods were interesting. However, how do i know as teacher which method works the best for the classroom? There are so many different types of methods. I don’t think I would know which one would be right for the classroom. However, if I try every method, it will take too much long.

English 345 Blog post 1

          Chapter one talks about English language lesson; how it looks like and problems and solution with English language lesson.  First, the author talked about an ESL classroom. The ESL classroom that the author observed had 15 Korean students who are young adults. Then, the author listed different activities. It was very interesting activity that the ESL teacher did. I was surprised about the English level that they had to learn. I learned these activities when I was in ESL in Junior High. Recently, I had a talk with my Junior High School ESL teacher. She told me that she was having problems because many Korean students understand grammar perfectly. However, they still struggle in conversational skills and using the grammar. I do not know when the observation conducted. However, I feel like lesson might be too easy especially for people from Seoul, South Korea. Many people who live in Seoul want to learn English and they are very competitive. If the ESL students were young adults, I feel like they should learn harder context. I feel like many ESL teachers teach easy context with ESL students. I have a friend who gets As on all of his ESL classes. However, his conversational skills are horrible. One day, I looked at his homework, and it was ridiculously easy for him. I feel like choosing the activity is very hard for ESL teachers. The reason is that the ESL teacher cannot pick too easy subject but not too hard subject.

          Chapter two talk about differences between approach, method and technique. Also, this book talked about major differences of methods. I didn’t know that there were many types of methods and have history with it. I learned some of methods like classical methods and grammar translation methods. Classical methods wasn’t very effective to me because I kept constantly had to memorize it rather than understanding the grammar. 

Last Blog

The article called, Appropriating English, Expanding Identities, and Re-Visioning the Field:  From TESOL to Teaching English for Glocalized Communicatioin (TEGCOM) by A. Lin, et. al is about four authors’ autobiographies that was in China, Japan, Iran and Hong Kong. One of interesting themes that they talked about is how they are not motivated to use English in China because they do not use it every day. I have personal experience toward this theme. Before I came to United States, I rejected to learn English because I never, in million years, would come to United States. Also, I didn’t use it every day. Therefore, I wasn’t motivated to learn English. It was more difficult for me to learn English after I came to United States. The reason is that it was difficult for me to accept that I needed to learn English that I hated so much. It was so confusing for me because my parents never mention about coming to the United States. When I was reading this article, I can relate these points that the author made.

Some authors felt that they were ashamed of their English and so on. However, I never felt that before. The reason is that because I never motivated to learn English when I lived in Korea. Because I didn’t know English, it was easier for me to accept the second language. In the article, Wendy and Angel felt that English is their part of identity. It was interesting how they got to this point because I felt the same way. Even though some people believe that English is my second language, there are no such things as second language in my opinion. I feel like English and Korean are my first language. Because sometimes, I feel comfortable speaking English, and sometimes, I feel comfortable speaking Korean. Therefore, English isn’t my second language anymore. To me, English values same way as Korean.

One of interesting points that McKay & Bolkhorts pointed out in chapter seven was rejection of westernization. Some teachers believe that western culture is not motivation to students. They believe that learning western cultures might disconnect their own culture. At some point, I agree with this. Some people believe that accepting western culture is a way to learn English quicker. Some immigrants’ parents make their children to reject their cultures to learn English. My aunt and uncle thought this way also. They made my cousin to go only white school when his English was limited. Also, they made him watch English movies or shows only, because they thought that it would help him. However, it didn’t. In fact, he got bad grades during his school year because he couldn’t accept American culture. They moved to the different school later on.

These readings made me think that how thankful I am to experience things that not many people have experienced. I can relate many of readings that we did so far. As future teacher, I can relate my students, and help them when they need help.

            

Blog Post 12

Matusda’s article is about how World English affects on writing. Teachers need to emphasize what is suitable for the context but also linguistic information that the students must know.  The article has guideline to teach WE in writing because it is so complicated to teach writing to some students. I think writing is very hard and most complicated. Some ELL students can write perfectly in writing but they are not fluent in other like speaking or listening.

Kubota’s article is about issues of globalization and she said that globalization has created the discourse of kokusaika in Japan. The discourse of kokusaika is focus teaching and learning a foreign language, especially English. In Japan, many schools favor teachers from America and Britain. My boyfriend wanted to teach in Japan after he graduated from ISU. He is fluent Japanese and lived in Japan for a year and he is American. He graduated with 3.8 G.P.A. However, he got denied two times for teaching in Japan because he wasn't qualified enough. He told me that it is very hard to teach English in Japan.

 It was very interesting to see that the “learning English is the understanding of the world and cultural diversity” (26) because English is international language. Japan is not the only country to emphasize learning English. However, it seems like many countries believe that fluent in English equals to succeed in life. I believe that it is important to speak more than one language. However, people shouldn’t force students to learn English. Many of my friends in Korea are so frustrated because of English. One of my friends came to United States to learn English, because he thought that he will get a job right away if he was fluent in English. However, when he went back to Korea, he didn’t because he graduated from a college that not many people know of. Then, he e-mailed me that how he regretted that he came to United States. Another thing that bothers me is that many countries believe that by bringing native speakers to the country, where English isn’t their first language, is not going to help the students. For example, Korean students will not be fluent in English because they will not use English as much as they use Korean. Therefore, the country needs to emphasize on how to teach English rather than hiring the native speakers because it doesn’t mean that they are capable of teaching the students well.  Also, what happens if English became not international language? I feel like many countries should emphasize on teaching their native language first and then teach English. The reason is that if a student isn’t fluent in their native language, they are not going to be fluent in their second language. 

Blog 11: Accents

The chapter two of Lippie-Green’s book is about accents in standard and non-standard English. I was fascinating to find out that even American people have accent.  Also, there are different types of accents depend on the country. Filipinos, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese and many people from different country have their own accents when they come to United States. I do have accents; however, my accents are not as thick as other people that English is their second language. I have accents when I pronounce some words or get nervous. Last summer, I was hanging out with my Korean friend for two months. Then, I realized that my accent got thicker than it was before. Then, I stopped talking Korean, and started talking in English often, and then my accent wasn’t thick anymore. Many of my friends that I knew since I came to United States have accents. My Korean friends think that my English accent is weird, however, to Native Speakers, I don’t have accents.  My Korean friends and I came to United States at the same age, and we lived her for about ten years. But how come, I don’t have as thick accent as theirs? I realized that my Korean friends hung out with many other Koreans and didn’t speak much of English except school. However, when I become sophomore in high school, I met many of friends that English is their native language. After sophomore in high school, I hung out with Native speakers than Koreans. The chapter talked about a case when the bilingual teacher had accents. When I was in sixth grade, this bilingual teacher taught my friends and I. The bilingual teacher had very thick accent, and so did we. However, my brother had a bilingual teacher who didn’t have a thick accent. She talked in Standard English. My brother and his friends learned by this teacher without accent. My brother and his friends do not have accents when they speak English. Therefore, is it important for people to not have accents? I think, accents don’t matter unless the grammar of the English is perfect. When my friends make fun of me when I have an accent, I always say that it doesn’t matter if I have accent or not, as long as they understand what I am trying to say.  

            In chapter five of the book from McKay and Bookhorst-Heng, it talked about the features of variation and standard ideology. For many Asian students, it is hard to differentiate between R and L or v and b. When there are more than two Rs or Ls, it is hard for to pronounce. In Korean language, there are no different pronunciations of B or V. Therefore, many students are confused with B and V. I hated the fact that I couldn’t pronounce many words. So, I asked my Native speaker friends to pronounce the words until I could pronounce it. I still cannot say celebrity. I am still working on pronounce the word. After reading these readings, it made me realize that is it important for the students to not have accent? Is it really matter if the teacher has accents? It having accents will affect students? 

Blog #10

Chapter 2 is about inner circle and outer circle, and expanding circle. The inner circle rejects English Language Learners and believes that it is a problem to have language diverse in society. The outer circle encourages English but ELL students need to learn English as much as native language students. The expanding circle is motivating ELL students to learn English even though they might not have perfect proficiency in English. Chapter 3 is about different approach to help ELL students in Great Britain and the United States. In the U.S., they pulled out programs that focus on language and social aspects. In Great Britain, they believe that pull out classes aren’t working.

These two chapters were very interesting to me because these chapters talked about controversy within ELL students. Many people believe that bilingual education isn’t a good program for ELL students. However, there are so many wrong facts about bilingual education. Also, not many people know about bilingual education, and some bilingual programs taught in a wrong way. Before I went into major, I was against bilingual programs because I saw social segregation when I was in a bilingual and ESL programs. My friends and I rejected to hang out with Americans because we believed that they wouldn’t understand us and only hung out with the students in ESL or bilingual programs. However, after taking all these classes about bilingual programs, I realized that ESL or bilingual programs that I attended to didn’t teach us about values of cultures. We only focused on grammar of English than social values. I think many bilingual programs in school don’t necessary focus on other except English. Because ELL students don’t learn the values of cultures in classrooms, they have stereotypes against the Native English speaker students. I went back to my ESL class for volunteer. I saw the same reaction and thoughts with the students in the ESL class. They didn’t want to hang out with American students, and they only hang out with each other. They believed that Americans don’t accept them because of their limited English. It has been ten years since I graduated, and it was so shocking to me to see the same problem that many students struggled with the years ago. Sometimes, I am so sad that many people don’t know the benefits of bilingual programs. I met many people who don’t even know about bilingual programs. I believe as future teacher, it is a good idea to learn about other programs than pulled out programs that is the best for ELL students.

Blog post # 9, Global English

Chapter one of International English In its Sociolinguistic Context is about globalized of English. This chapter talks about how English is spread throughout the world. I believe that English is important and it becomes universal language. Many countries teach English like Korea, Japan, China, Philippines, and etc. The author discuss that many Asian countries teach English since they are young. However, people are wondering that if teaching English when the children are young can be effective when their home language isn’t fully developed. I learned English when I was in Korea. I learned English 3^rd grade through 6^th grade when I was in school. However, I didn’t learn any English because I didn’t see the importance of it. Many Korean parents want their children to learn English since they are 5 years old. Is learning English that important? Many people believe that learning English is equal to be successful in the future. I don’t believe that people need to learn English order to be successful. However, some of my friends in Korea desperately want to come to U.S.A. to learn English because it is hard to get a job in Korea if they cannot speak English very well. All of my friends are jealous of me because I can speak English. They don’t understand the conflicts that I go through because they think that I am lucky to have an opportunity to learn English in America.

Also, many American pop cultures influenced many countries. Many music industries influenced many countries. I remember that one of my friends in ESL class told me that she doesn’t understand why many countries want to be like American. They like American songs, and want to learn English. I think the reason is because United States influenced many countries. Therefore, many countries want to learn English. I interview my Filipino friend for the paper that I wrote. She told me that United States influenced Philippines because Philippines were a colonizer of France and United States took over. She told me that English is their native second language in Philippines that everyone knows how to speak English. They focus on teaching English so much. When my friend came to United States, her reading level was higher than any other students in her classroom.

Is learning English that important? Which one is more important, learning the students’ home language or learning English first? In my bilingual classes, I learned that order to learn the second language perfectly; students need to be fluent on their L1. However, many people believe that English is very important before the children learn their L1 first. It is interesting that many people in U.S. don’t need to learn the language other than English. But many other countries, it is necessary to learn English. 

Blog post 8

First article that I read was Becoming Black:  Rap and Hip-Hop, Race, Gender, Identity, and the Politics of ESL Learning by Ibrahim. This article is about how some African students in French become black, want to speak black language, learn how to dress, hairstyles. This article was very interesting. Many African students learn English very fast by the television, and friends. When the one of the students said people judge her as student when she cannot speak English. That is true. It was very interesting how people judge someone just because they cannot speak English in America. When I went to take a citizenship, I was waiting to take the test. While I was waiting, this man did something wrong because he didn’t understand English very well. The security guy stopped the man and called him, “Dumb-ass.” I was very upset at this security guy. I wanted to say something but my mom stopped me. I went up to him and apologized about the things that ignorant security guy said. I sat down next to him and talked with him. This man who couldn’t speak English, he was a doctor in Iran and he wanted to get a citizenship because he wanted to learn English and wanted to be lawyer. This man is very smart guy, and just because he couldn’t speak English very well, people automatically judge him as not well educated. It was very interesting to see African students learn Black English. What is proper way to speak English? Isn’t Black English is part of dialect, like how people speak in Texas? I don’t know who can judge to speak what is proper language.

Second article by Kubota is about how the idea of race can shape social, cultural and political dimension of language teaching and learning. While I was reading this article, it made me think how powerful racism is. When is it okay to talk about races? This article made m realize that it was very important to talk about race.

Third article by Rich and Troudy is about a small scale study of five male Muslim Saudi Arab learners in TEOL graduate programmed at a university in the United Kingdom. Some students felt uncomfortable to answer some questions that are true about Arab. I understand how they feel. They understand why Arab people marry four wives in closed society because it is their culture. They just know. My friend called her brother Kuya which means older brother in Tagalong. However, she stopped calling him that name because she was sick of answering to people who asking the meaning. Those Arab students feel like the outsider because people look at them as outsider. I understand that we are individually different, but why can’t we accept each other? I sometimes get so frustrated because people judge me based on my skin color. It would be the same with Arab students. When I was working at Wood Field Mall during the spring break, this woman came up to me and asked me directions very slowly, thinking that I cannot understand her. I answered her, and I was upset that she automatically thinks that I cannot speak English very well. It would be the same for many of my other friends. As a future teacher, it is important to teach racism and understand the students.

Blog post 7

The article The article Construction of Racial Stereotypes in English as a Foreign Language Texts is by Cosette Taylor-Mendes who researched and interview question to students and teachers on Sao Paulo, Brazil. The researcher wanted to know how Brazil students look at race, class and gender when they look at the images in English language textbooks. Many English language textbooks portrayed United States as white elite and blacks are represented as poor and powerless and whites are powerful and wealthy. This article is very interesting. I never thought about how English language textbook portrayed United States. Also, I learned that how powerful the vision imaginary is.

I don’t remember seeing images of black people in the English language textbook when I was in Korea. I realized that black people were portrayed in a negative way in many cultures. This might be something that I don’t want to tell people. However, my parents don’t want to associate with black people. They don’t want me to associate with black people. Last semester, I had a black roommate and my parents were really worried. Maybe, the reason why my parents have negative stereotypes towards black people is that how English textbook that they learned when they were in school, and movies portrayed African Americans. Over the weekend, I called my parents and asked some questions why they hate African American so much. My parents told me that they believe that black people are violent and poor. Therefore, I asked my parents what makes them think that way. My parents told me that because that was how English textbook, movies, books and news are portrayed black people. My parents stated that, “If black people were nice and rich, why the media portrayed black people like that? Why English textbook portrayed black people like that? The reason why media portrayed black people in a bad way is that because it is true.” I cannot blame my parents that how they feel because I understand why they dislike African Americans. However, at the same time, it is very frustrated.

I was really shocked after the conversation. As a future teacher, how can I inform the students’ negative stereotypes toward racial groups? What if the student has already believed in his/her negative stereotypes? And how can I change that? 

Blog 6, Writing

The article that was written by Will Baker is about ELF which is English as Lingua Franca. Baker argued that ELF doesn’t have its own culture. The ability to negotiate and adapt communication changes are the least important for the learners of ELF. It was very interesting to read this article. Before reading this article, I didn’t know what the English as Lingua Franca was. It is very interesting to read the article. I always make mistakes when I talk with someone else. Not a lot of people correct my mistakes. Some of my friends who are English native speakers, instead of correcting my grammatical mistakes, they make the same mistakes that I make when they talk. For example, I always get mixed up with pronouns of ‘he’ and ‘she’ when I have a conversation. Some of my friends were starting to make same mistakes that I did after they met me. When I talk to people that their native language is not English, we make grammatical mistakes when we make conversation. However, we understand each other. While I was reading this article, it made me wonder, is it okay to leave my ESL students to use ELF language? Can we tell ELL students to which conversation is grammatically right or wrong when many English native speakers make grammatical mistakes in their own conversation?

The second article that I read was written by Meredith Marra. This article is about the research that how Maori communicate in their workplace. The researchers needed to train themselves order to analyze Maori’s community. The researchers had to be respectful and behave to make Maori subjects comfortable.  

The video that we watched in our class was about the roles of writing in different countries. It was very interesting to see how many countries have different forms of writing. I agreed that for many ELL students, rather than understanding the format of English grammar, it is easier for them to memorize them. I am taking English 243 which is an English grammar course. In that class, many people know grammatical rules. Therefore, when the professor teaches new rules, they struggle with it. However, it is easier for me to understand the new grammatical rules because English grammatical rules are not similar with Korean grammatical rules. Therefore, I just memorize them. Also, in the video, one of the students stated that when teachers make correction in grammar rather than the concept of the essay, he gets discouraged. When the teachers make corrections on grammatical mistakes rather than the concept of the essay, I feel discouraged also. When I was in high school, I was struggling with grammar. I asked my ESL teacher to help. She gave me a book and I needed to write a summary of every chapter in the book. Until my paper had no grammatical mistakes, I had to keep revising. At first, I felt discouraged. I kept making same mistakes over and over. However, I started to realize the grammatical mistakes and didn’t make it. So, my writings got better. It wasn’t perfect; however, it got much better than it used to be. As a future teacher, is it right to grade the ELL students’ essays based on the grammatical mistakes? Or based on the concept of the essay? What if ELL students’ writing will not improve if we just look at the concept of the essay? How can we make ELL students to feel not discouraged when they see grammatical mistakes on their essays?

Blog 5

I had to read three articles which are Changing Currents in Contrastive Rhetoric:  Implications for teaching and research by Ulla Connor, Globalization and Language Learning in Rural Japan by Kybota, and Unfinished Knowldege by Kubota. The article that is written by Connor is about contrastive rhetoric. The author showed the influence of contrastive rhetoric by showing examples of Finnish, Japanese and Senegalese. The author stated that contrastive rhetoric has an effect on teaching English in many other countries. The article talked about researches that writing English by using examples from Japan and Senegal. It is very important for the teachers to teach ELL students how to write.

            The second article which is Globalization and Language Learning in Rural Japan is about languages that used in Japan. The article stated that many Japanese schools emphasized on repetition and memorization. Many Asian students have hard time on working with groups because many schools in Asian emphasize on working as individuals rather than groups. Many schools in Asian focus in individuals rather than groups. I didn’t realize this until I read this article. When I went to school in Korea, I don’t remember working with groups. It was always individuals rather than group work. I used to volunteer in an ESL class that I used to be in. I remember she told me that she was always having hard time to help Japanese students to work in groups because they don’t understand work in groups. Therefore, in a group work, some Japanese students were so frustrated because they didn’t understand working with another. So, ESL teacher was struggling with collaborate with another. Many Asian students are good at writing. However, it isn’t same with everyone. I always was struggling with using THE. In Korean language, they don’t have THE or A in the sentence. Therefore, I still struggle with using The or A.

            The third article is about a situation that this teacher didn’t know much information about students from different country and later she found out the importance of learning cultures. When I read this article, I was annoyed with this teacher is naïve. I don’t understand why many teachers don’t understand importance of culture. However, when I thought about it, there were still many teachers out there who don’t understand the importance of culture. In my C&I 208 classroom, I have a teacher as classmate and she told us that some teachers in her school don’t understand why Hispanic students are in the school. The teachers were looking at them as illegal immigrants rather than if they were students who want to get educated. There are many future teachers that I know don’t see the importance of learning a culture. I believe that every education majors should have a class with learning about bilingual or ESL. When I introduce my major to people, many people don’t even know what is bilingual or ESL class. I had to volunteer in elementary school. I was talking to a teacher and she didn’t even know what is ESL or bilingual.

            Therefore, how can we inform other teachers or community about different cultures? How do we know if the student’s writing is fine or not without being stereotypical? Sometimes, it is so frustrating to think about TESOL too much. 

Blog Post #4

The article of Kuma talks about the stereotypes of Asian cultures, and why do TESOL teachers have stereotypes. The main three stereotypes of Asians are obedient to adult figure, passive in the classroom, and lack of critical thinking. As much as I want to disagree on these stereotypes, I have to agree with the author. One of my friends went to South Korea for study of the broad. He was in a class, and asked his professor because he didn’t understand something. Everyone looked at him and the professor was very offended that he asked a question. He didn’t understand why. I asked one of my other friends who was an international student. He told me that many professors who teach in Korea believe that it is the not professors’ fault that the students don’t understand. This idea came from respecting elders.

            The article argued that Many Asian students are passive. However, when I was in ESL class, many students were not passive. They were active and liked to ask questions. However, many Asian students were so passive and quiet outside of an ESL classroom. I was one of them. Many ELL students have to come to a classroom where they have to speak the language that they are not used to. At least I felt that way. I felt more acceptable in ESL classes. In my opinion, people tend to judge foreigners based on the stereotypes. Is it really the culture? Or is it the fact that the students feel uncomfortable in the classrooms that make them passive?

I have stereotypes, and it is hard to ignore it. I was in my diversity classroom, and everyone in the classroom had to write stereotypes of each racial group. Asian was the only one that didn’t have any negative stereotypes. It was very interesting to see that. As a future teacher, how am I going to ignore stereotypes? What happens if I treated the students because of my stereotypes.

Blog 3, Language

The chapter two of Hall’s book is about how the language can be identifies individual’s socio-cultural status, and language can help people identify themselves. Since everyone’s identity is different, the language can be different. No matter what kind of the language is the person uses, their cultural perspective will be reflected in the use of the language. Norton’s article is very interesting. The article is talking about how language can change person’s social status, and the author did a research with Eva which was non-Native-English speaker.

            When I read these two articles, I was confused. Maybe the reason why I am confused is Hall’s article is view of non-essentialist, but I am not. I understand some immigrants cannot be themselves because of their limited language. However, I believe that it depends on the person rather than the language. My mom’s English is limited, however, no matter what situation she is in, she never let herself down. She was working with this teenager girl who always ignored my mom because of my mom’s limited English. However, every time when her co-worker ignores my mom, she stands up for herself. I did understand why Eva couldn’t stand up for herself. However, I don’t believe that it is necessary the language that made her not stand up for her social status. Everyone has different personality, different thought. Therefore, Norton’s research cannot be reliable.

There is a co-worker named, Na-na from my old job. She is never afraid of asking if she doesn’t understand. When she doesn’t understand the definition of the words, or meaning of the context, she isn’t scared to ask, and not be ashamed of it when she doesn’t know. I think that many immigrants, no matter where they come from, are scared to ask questions and admit that they don’t understand something which can make other people ignore the immigrants. It is very hard to encourage students to speak up in the class. I remember that many ESL students are very outspoken and loud in ESL classes. However, outside of ESL classes, they are quite. There is some reason why they act different. First, they feel comfortable in ESL classes than regular classes. Second, ELL students are scared to talk in the class, and scared that English-native-speaker might make fun of them even though it is not true.

Therefore, as a future teacher, how am I going to make our students to feel comfortable to ask questions no matter where they are at? Also, is it okay to encourage them to stand up for themselves when they need to? The more readings I do, as more I am worried about my future teachings.

Blog 2

This article talks about how immigrants are “negotiation of identities” (Pavlenko 15) with American culture. Many European immigrants negotiate with American culture. However, many Asian immigrants fail to negotiate with American culture. Many immigrants think that order to understand the language; they have to give up one of the cultures.

When I read this article, as much as I want to disagree, however, in reality, most of the things that author said I had to agree because it was true. The article stated that, “I have now been in America for nineteen years; I have grown up here as much as any man can; I have had my education here; I have become a citizen; I have given all I had of youthful zeal and energy in serving my adopted country; I have come to love America as I do my very life- perhaps more arid yet they still call me a 'foreigner'” (Pavlenk 6). When I read this passage, this described how I felt. I recently became a citizen of United States. I lived in U.S. for ten years. I spend my youth years in United States and I will in the future. I am Korean and I lived there for a long time. Many of my Korean friends think that I am too Americanized. Many of my non-Korean friends think that I am very Korean. I used to be very confused with my own identity. I felt like I got rejected by both of cultures that I live with. My English proficiency isn’t perfect as Americans but neither is my Korean. I was always questioning which cultures that I need to accept in order to get accepted in both societies. Then, I realized that I didn’t get rejected by both cultures, I am accepting both cultures which make me who I am. I understand the perspective of both cultures because I accept them. I don’t necessary agree with some of Korean norms or American norms. I just know and understand both cultures.

I agree that many immigrants’ especially Asian immigrants believe that they need to give up their native culture to become ‘American.’ Therefore, they give up using their native language. I had this argument with my friend on Sunday. She told me that many other immigrants or second generation kids understand their native language and speak perfectly. However, many Korean immigrants or second generation kids cannot speak Korean very well. She blamed that it is Korean parents which is 1^st generation think that it is not necessary to teach Korean since they live in America. I believe that it is very hard for immigrants to accept some cultural norms that is opposite of their culture. Therefore, they are likely to give up their culture since they are living in America. I see many of my Korean friends. They are Americanized, or Koreanized. In Korean society, we have a name for it: Fob and Twinkie. Fob means “fresh off the boat” which is for immigrants who accept only their native culture. Twinkie is for usually second generation, which for people who reject their native culture and accept American culture. Usually, fobs and twinkies don’t like each other. Fobs don’t understand that twinkies are so Americanized when they are Korean. Twinkies don’t understand that why fobs keep their cultural norms so much when they live in the U.S. The relationship between fobs and twinkies are not bad now. However, a few years ago, it was worse. I still don’t understand why immigrants cannot corporate with each other. I don’t understand why many immigrants are so eager to learn American cultures. They don’t have to accept the American cultures, as long as they are inform about American cultures.

As a future teacher, I want to teach my students how to accept both cultures. My question is “How?” When I was struggling with my own identity, no one taught me how to accept. I know that both cultures are essential but no one taught me how to accept. I just had to figure it out on my own. Also, it is necessary to inform the parents that it is important to accept both of the cultures rather than only American or their native culture. 

Blog post 1

The chapter 2 of Kumarazvedivelu talks about culture. While I was reading this chapter, it was interesting to see author’s viewpoint. Kumarazvedivelu stated that “In other words, because no culture can exist in its purest form, every culture is, willy-nilly, a hybrid cultural.” I completely agreed with this statement. Many different cultures are mixed with another. Every culture has its own significance; however, they are similar with each other. Even though every culture is similar, community of culture is individual. The cultures can be similar but they cannot be the same.  Another interesting viewpoint is that how the individual country wanted to learn another language after 1900’s. In Korea, many people desperately want to learn English because English is becoming a language that many people speak. I wonder why English became such an important language that many people want to speak.  

When I read Atkinson’s article, it was very interesting. While I was reading this article, there was an argument that how the TESOL teachers need to see the students as individuals rather than cultural groups. I believe that it is important to understand the students’ cultures. I think the people act differently depend on where they grow up. I came here when I was 13 years old. I only hung out with Korean friends until I was a sophomore in high school. For a while, I was having troubles looking at elder’s eyes. The reason is that when I went to junior high school, my maESL teacher was talking to me. However, I looked down because in Korea, it is very rude to look at the elderly person’s eyes when elderly person is upset. My ESL teacher got very upset and she grabbed my face and told me to look at her eyes when she talked to me. I knew that American’s norm is different than Korean’s norm. However, because I was used to Korean norms, it was hard for me to accept American’s norm that is completely different than Korean’s norm. I was so shocked when this even happened. I was more scared to talk to white people after that. If the teacher acted differently, I wouldn’t take a long time to adjust American culture. I have so much experiences that I realized how significant it is for the teachers to know their students’ cultures.

I believe that culture is very important. The culture makes who we are as person. If I wasn’t Korean, or lived in Korea, I would be a different person. In my opinion, people are so used to their own culture, many people are rejecting to learn and understand different culture. I personally saw people do this. When I was in high school, I had to talk about Korean’s norms and how it is different with American’s norms. One of the students in the classroom didn’t want to hear it because he felt like he needed to change his action based on someone’s culture. He didn’t understand why immigrants to keep their culture when they live in United States. I was really surprised to hear this because he wasn’t the only one who thought that. I argued with him and explained to him why people talk about their culture, and keep their culture.

These articles that I read made me re-think of the beliefs that I had, and how important it is to respect the culture. 

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