Race

While interpreting the readings for this week I was able to gain a more in depth understanding of different concepts that are tied to TESOL.  For example, I had considered how complex race is and how closely tied to ethnicity, culture and religion it is.  It was interesting to read about how the concept of race has changed over time.  Kubota and Lin point out how the term “race” was a development of science in the late 18^th century which referred to biological categories of human beings.  They also discuss the more contemporary definition of race and how it has been increasingly replaced by the notion of cultural differences and how it used as a category to distinguish groups based on sociocultural characteristics.  This got me thinking about how teachers and peers may misinterpret the term race and use it to categorize or stereotype their students and classmates. This could in turn be detrimental to students’ identity formation, education, and just overall self esteem.  Kumaravadivelu writes about cultural stereotypes in TESOL, so I thought these two articles tied well together.  Kumaravadivelu’s main focus is on Asian students and the three most common stereotypes that exist among them.  I think that people are always so quick to assume that these specific types of classroom behaviors are confined solely to Asian students, however; they are greatly mistaken.  Kumaravadivelu’s research suggests that passivisity and lack of participation in class is common among all second language learners (or any student for that matter) due to low language proficiency, and it is not attributed to culture.  Second Language Learners might be afraid to participate or speak in class because he or she is not confident in his or her speaking abilities and is afraid of getting teased by other students.  Kumaravadivelu sites Atkinson’s argument that, “critical thinking is a special characteristic of the American upper and middle classes.”  Atkinson also cautions against teaching critical thinking to international and language minority students because he doubts whether they will even benefit from education.  I personally do not understand how this so called argument even makes sense.  In other words, I don’t see how this ignorant statement can be backed by statistics and research.  Ibrahim’s article really brings to light the influences behind identity formation among black youth.  Ibrahim’s research findings show that black youth can in fact have a marginalized linguistic norm (Black English as a second language) as a target language.  Ibrahim explores the reasons as to why these youth would chose the margin as a target.  The implications conclude that in choosing that marginalized language norm as a target language it gives them a sense of investment and contributes to the identity formation process.  I think it is important for teachers to identify and understand sites in which students invest their identities and desires.  Ibrahim suggests that teachers must also develop materials that engage students’ raced, classed, gendered, sexualized, and ablled identities.  Overall, each article had insightful research, arguments, and information to offer.  

Week 8

Our readings for the week explored some different and similar interpretations of EFL/ESL texts and their images and messages.  It is interesting to read about how impactful images can be, or as Giaschi writes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”  When you really think about it, who should be represented in EFL/ESL texts? Should it be British culture or “American culture?”  Hinkel writes about the complexity of EFL/ESL texts and materials and how they are rarely culturally neutral.  It is the teacher’s responsibility to apply mediums of instruction by using methods that reflect those mediums/ materials.  For example, it is important for teachers to discuss with their students the meanings of the images and what they represent.  In Mendes’s study, she explores how images in EFL/ESL texts, which represent English cultures shape students’ and teachers’ impressions of the target foreign-language culture.  I think it was interesting that she recognized that students had the ability and willingness, when asked, to share their ideas of race and power in the images in their textbooks.   Her findings contrast Giaschi’s belief that, “students of ESL may find it difficult or impossible to challenge the hidden meaning in the materials provided to them.  I think I would have to agree with Mendes in that students, given the opportunity, are able to express their ideas about the images and what they mean to them.  Mendes illustrates this in her study.  First of all, I thought it was very important that she first recognized her position of power as an experienced EFL instructor who is a White woman from Canada and considered it when doing her study.  She talks about how this may influence her participant’s responses.  However, then she proceeds to tell us that several of the participants are former students of hers so they would feel comfortable sharing their perspectives.  During her interviews, she found that most of her participants were able to express critical viewpoints about the images presented in their textbooks.  The participants noticed that whites were represented as an ‘elite’ race in the images, and blacks were represented as poor or powerless.  I also thought it was interesting that the white students noticed the underrepresentation of minority people in the textbooks more so than the two participants who were black and mulatto.  Mendes suggests that ESL textbook images do not explore migration, immigration, colonization or the intermixing of race and identity.  What kind of a message does this send to ESL/EFL students around the world?  According to one of the participants, it reinforces stereotypes such as, “White American families eating hamburgers.”  Giaschi also points out stereotypes of gender that are represented in ESL/EFL textbook images.  It is interesting to think about how just the positioning of men and women in an image can send such a strong message to the reader/viewer.  Overall, I liked that each reading explored different issues related to EFL/ESL texts and their images.