Week 11: English in an era of globalization

Chapter one in Interaction English in Its Sociolinguistic Contexts talks about the English language in an era of globalization. There is this wide spread of English taking place all over the world. However, with that being said, homogenization is leading to the loss of other languages around the world. With the loss of languges comes the loss of culture. I agree with those stating that is devastating to see languages dying with the increase of English language speakers. This comes down to the fact that in order to save these cultures and languages they need to continue speaking it and spreading it. I see how this can be so hard when such a language as powerful as English is globalizing. What would happen if English eventually became the only language in the world?

I found it very interesting to read about the spread of English through colonialism. Also, I thougth that it was cool to read about all of the various incentives for learning English. The incentives included economic, education and mass media incentives.   It made me realize how much of necessity there is to speak the English lanuage. I had a flashback to my study abroad experience yet again while reading the section about music. The chapter states how English is the dominant language in popular music today. In many countries, the exposure to these popular songs has led to code-mixing in locally produced pop music. I remember my Spanish friends not being able to speak English however they were able to sing the lyrics of popular English sang songs. I thought it was funny how they would sing but didn't even know what the lyrics meant. They would then use those words in everyday speech. 

With the high demand of having the ability to speak English, monolinguism is an important factor to consider in all of this. Each and every person has these cultural layers and languages as they choose to learn another language. It seems as if these layers and beginning to fall off and they are being left with only the English language. I think that especially as future educators, we need to help students realize the beauty of having such a unique cultural identity. It is an incredible experience learning another language but that does not need to include losing native languages. I plan on helping my students to protect their cultural identity and stress the importance of keeping linguistic and cultural background. 

Week 10: Race, Language, and identity; critical multiculturalism in TESOL

The Ibrahim article, Becoming Black was very interesting to me. I was also taken back by the story of these French speaking Africans coming to North America. It makes me wonder why blacks only find themselves identifying with other blacks. In this society today unfortunately that is still the case, but not in all cases.  However, generally you see people of the same race or culture identifying with one another. It is amazing to me how they would just fall into the categories of becoming black just for having that skin color. I remember talking about with whom we find ourselves identifying with. What makes up our social identity? I had found myself identifying with many different groups of people and my culture only being one of them. I believe that we need to continue to expand our identity by looking past skin color. Anyone can learn BE (black English). As seen in today’s society, it is another dialect of English and not only black people are speaking it. I have seen and heard people who wanted to be black or identified with that type of person.

The idea of racism comes to mind when I was reading the article. He also addresses the white racist in the article which made me question my beliefs and if I am falling for the stereotypical mind set. I believe that you should not fall into the stereotype stated in the article if you have black skin. It was so crazy to me to hear that these continental Africans are falling into these dominant groups such as blacks. They are facing a social imaginary right off the bat as Ibrahim states in the article. I can’t imagine how it would feel like to enter a society that already had preconceived ideas about where one does and does not fit in. That want and need to fit into society could definitely have an effect on with whom these continental Africans were identifying with. He states that they mostly identified with African American blacks and their culture.  It goes back to the idea that everyone is an individual and we all come from different cultural backgrounds. I believe that anyone can identify with whatever kind of culture or identity that they want to.

It was eye opening to see that he did not identify himself as being black, he described his identity as tall, Sudanese and a basketball player. However, when he got to North America he made the transition from his identity to becoming black. In the end, I think that it is important for TESOL educators to begin to put aside the stereotypes and treat all students equally. I believe that in today’s society we need to embrace the different cultures and like Ibrahim says to look into rap and hip-hop and instead of banning it, embrace it and assist students in finding their identity.  

Week 8: Cultural Representation

In this week’s assigned reading, I was surprised to see how great of an impact that images can make for a non native speaker learning English. The images in the EFL textbooks can be a very important aspect for these students when learning. I thought about myself being a visual learner and a native speaker. These students may not completely understand the text but can draw conclusions from images. Right in the introduction of Taylor-Mendes’ article I was stunned to see what the student Fatima had to say.

She is quoted saying, “I see more White people than Black people. I saw ... when I saw Black people, I saw them in a poor situation. Here they don't put a rich man for example who have a job and have a happy family. To me this is ridiculous ... it's like they show the majority who have money is the White people, and who have this lifestyle is the majority of people who have money ... and they are White. I think the [English language] books ... This people who study in ... schools very expensive want to see themselves, and to see themselves is to see White people ... White people and happy situations, a car, a beautiful beach, beautiful things.

Fatima’s reaction to images in her EFL textbook made me question how I would depict English language speakers in a textbook. Her reaction also upset me to see how much of an impact stereotypes have in our world. As future educators of the English language we need to break the mold and stay far away from stereotypes. It is crazy to see how the creators of these kinds of textbooks believe that the images are apolitical, neutral and enjoyable. These images are putting ideas in to the learners of English that may not be true! Also, from reading the other comments made by students learning the language is that each and every one of them have their own interpretation with the same general stereotypical observations. It is incredible how much they can interpret just from viewing a picture. They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Another idea that stood out to me was when the author discusses the question, what does an English speaker look like? Once again, I began to question myself as to how I would answer such a question. The first thought that came to my mind was a white person, seeing that I am one. But is that the right answer? I don’t necessarily believe so and therefore I started to understand how the responses to this question would be biased, prejudiced or even racist. However, the simple answer that can be depicted from the images in EFL textbooks is “White, wealthy, powerful, isolated with members of their own race, and free of problems.”  I think that we have come such a long way from the past of harsh racial biases to even jeopardize our chances at reinforcing our past ideas.  It makes me uncomfortable for people of other races to see these kinds of stereotypes reoccurring in our society today.

Week 7