Week 16 blog

This week's readings address pedagogical decision making within the sociolinguistics contexts of an EIL classroom.  It is important to consider how literature has historically been limited to representing only the dominant cultures.  Also, thinking about the role diglossia, or lack thereof, within that society and what impact is has on education.  It is interesting to me how nations, such as the United States approach bilingual education with an English only attitude.  I strongly believe that all students, not just students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds should be exposed to a multicultural eduction. In education systems where multiculturalism and multilingualism is not seen as valuable it is easy to develop students who are extremely ignorant and narrow minded. Many students who grow up in small towns with very little diversity often think that they will not have to deal with diversity or people from diverse backgrounds.  This type of thinking is dangerous because it is often not the case.  For example, if that individual plans on going to college, it is quite possible he or she could end up having a roommate of a diverse background.  Point being, if and when that time comes he or she will not have been exposed to different cultures or languages, which leaves them at a disadvantage.  It is unfortunate that educators part of our educational system in the United States still encourage these kinds of pedagogical practices.

Week 14: Language planning and policy

Because I accidently read this week’s readings last week I will be discussing last week’s readings in this blog.  McKay & Bokhorsts’s articles, as well as Chapter 4 in our book discuss the role of language planning policy in the learning of a second language.  It is important to consider the relationship between language status and social class when discussing the topic of bilingualism.  This belief that English serves as a national unifying language, I think, is definitely a large contributor to parents’ decisions and family language policy.  For example, in the 30 plus years my parents have lived in the United States, they have always been made to think that without learning English it will be almost impossible for them or their children to be prosper as citizens of this country.  In this case, English holds a sense of superiority over all other languages (no other languages will be of value or use here in the United States).  Although my parents felt that it was too late for them to learn English proficiently, they wanted their 4 children to have the language and use it to better their lives. Although my parents wanted us to learn English, they always encouraged us to also speak Spanish at home.  English is the language through which we function in society, and Spanish is the language through which we communicate at home with our parents.  However, this is not always the case amongst Latino immigrant families.  Every family has different language policies.  McKay & Bokhorst shed light on the growing support for bilingual education among both white middle class parents and also language minority parents.  The article also talks about how both personal networks and public discourses influence and help to establish family language policies.  These networks and influences shape parents’ beliefs of what it means to be a “good parent.”  Looking back, it is really difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what factors influenced my parents to be so supportive of us learning English, while keeping our Spanish.  Growing up, the only time we ever used Spanish was at home when speaking to our parents.  I think that just being able to continue communicating with our parents was reason or motivation enough to keep our Spanish.  On the other hand, doing well in school , being able to be an active member of society, and communicating with our friends were all motivators to learn English. 

Language variatins, language ideologies

Before reading Lippie-Green's Chapter  I had never considered to view non-accent or "standard English" as a myth or abstraction.  When you think about it, it almost makes perfect sense.  We always hear these concepts spoken of and we read about them all the time, but have we actually ever heard a non-accent or standard English spoken before?  What does it mean to have a non-accent, Standard English language lexicon?  Because the word "accent" itself cannot be easily defined, making sense of "non-accent" could be that much more complicated.  I had also not given much thought to differences among first and second language accents.  Individuals who are native English speakers have an accent that varies from region to region.  Individuals who are native speakers of a language other than English and acquire English, on the other hand, the term accent is used to refer to the breakthrough of native language phonology into the target language.  For example, my mother, who is a native speaker of Spanish has an L2 accent when speaking English.  Although she has been here in the United States for over 30 years, she will never be able to get rid of her accent when speaking English. 

                I found Mr. Kahakua’s story to be very bothersome because he was discriminated against based on his accent.  The simple fact that he had twenty years of experience and considerable educational background would make him, in my eyes, more than qualified for his promotion.  It is unfortunate that these kinds of things exist in our society today.  His story really hit close to home because something similar happened to my mother.  She has been without work for a while now, but has been applying at different places.  She has told me about one employment where she has applied numerous times and spoken to the hiring manager a couple of times.  On both occasions the manager pretended to remember my mother and has told her they were in fact hiring and that he would call her back to follow up- he never called her.  My mom expressed to me that she knew that he was just dismissing her because of her minimal English speaking abilities and accent, although the position she applied for would require little to know English proficiency.  Unfortunately, I think her suspicions are correct, and I do strongly believe that discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and language are extremely prevalent in our society today.