Blog Post 5: ELF

The first article I read was Baker's The Cultures of English as a Lingua Franca which looked at what ELF means in understanding relationships between languages and cultures. This research study analyzed intercultural communication from studies when using English in higher education in Thailand. She looks at how cultural frames are employed and perceived in ELF communication. An interesting point the article raises that I haven’t considered before is that English, or really any language cannot be seen as the property of one culture or community. This is suggesting that language isn't a solid thing belonging to one group of people exclusively but instead is complex and multifaceted. English is not connected to one culture of traditional English-dominant countries.  I don’t think many Americans see English in this way. In my own experience, I think that some people feel that they “own” English. I have heard  people say “If you come to this country, learn English” multiple times. This statement seems to suggest that America = English and ignores the language variation within our country. The article also defined English as a lingua franca which is a way to refer to communication in English through speakers with different first languages . The two people interacting have two different first languages and communicate in English. This definition was very helpful for me.

          I think Risafer’s theory discussing English in a differential sense rather than a generic sense was very interesting. Originally I believed in the generic/universal sense where language and culture are intertwined. However, she believes language can be separated. I didn't like how this was worded or agree with the statement until I read on. From what I understood she believes language can be separated from culture and other cultures could use those languages. What was confusing for me, is that if a culture uses a language other than the one typically associated with their culture, why does that not become part of their culture?  She does go on to say she believes English languages like English language cultures take on new cultural meanings. I agree that in any new communicative event a new language and culture link can be created because the use of that language is special. English is my first language and I have been studying Spanish since I was fourteen. When I am with some of my friends we actually speak Spanish with each other. I have a friend who has been to South America several times and I don’t get to see her very often but when I do we sometimes switch to Spanish during our conversations whether it is intentional or not. My use of Spanish here, versus my use of Spanish in the classroom is different. I’m not sure if this is a perfect example to reflect this idea but I did think about this. She believes events like this create languacultures, and that no language is tied to one culture. Every interaction and use of language is unique. 

           Baker also states language is what expresses, embodies and symbolizes cultural reality (pg. 6). This quote stood out to me in the article. Language could be used for a variety of reason from representing shared experiences and knowledge, creating experiences to membership to a community. As TESOL students we all understand the importance of language. 

           I really enjoyed the study the article provided as well. I thought one of the participants, Nami’s explanation was very interesting. Nami said that English native speaker norms have influenced her but she also has adapted to suit her own needs and purposes. Another participant also commented on English speaking cultures being different than Thai, and seemed to relate to English cultures more.  This is an interesting look at how EFLs view the “English culture” and how it affects them. They are aware of differences.Ultimately I thought these participants observations and experiences were very helpful. The article examined their feedback away from House’s claim but more towards what Kenkins believes; that ELF is a vehicle for expressing and perhaps creating cultures and identifications (pg. 20.) The article overall looked at that specific relationship between culture and languages in ELF contexts. As it points out, there are a couple of ways of looking at the data from the article.One is that ELF has no culture, but individual communication does. Every person has a rich background and history that is reflected through their language, behaviors and expectations. All in all for lingua franca communication it is very difficult to identify a clear relationship between language and culture. As teachers we need to continue to examine data and different points of view to understand the many different theories, make our own conclusions and include them into our classroom.

             Next I read Marra’s Chapter  which discussed something I had not considered before, language in the workplace. This study specifically looked at New Zealand  and allowed participants the volunteers to record their own interactions for research. I thought this was a really interesting way to conduct a study but I immediately had concerns about this particular method. Workplace participants decide what is recorded, when and how so. While seeing how participants interpret interactions is very interesting I would pair this approach with a researchers unfiltered observations as well. The participants personal ideas could be included through interviews etc. but overall I think it’s better to have the control in the researchers hands too. Another change I would make to this study is to look at ineffective communication as well. While looking at effective communication is helpful,  it would be interesting and beneficial to see what doesn't work as well. I think observing ineffective communication would open the doors to many more conclusions and a better understanding of what makes communication effective.

            I also thought it was interesting how aware the researchers were and how much they separated themselves from the indigenous group, the Maori population.  They called themselves outsiders, visitors and limited. I think in this case you need to somewhat step aside to make observations and conclusions. It’s great that they acknowledged their own cultural differences as to avoid making assumptions or allowing those ideas to influence their research but It might have interfered. I think you have to remain neutral and be willing to learn and not focus on your differences.  I liked that the researchers did not take simple characteristics of this culture as true but considered that there are differences among members of this group. As they stated on page eight, they knew they had to “explore deeper” than what they were just told. I also wonder how they found these Maori organizations. Were all of the workers Maori, or did they assume that everyone in the work place related to this culture. I wish they had clarified on that more because I did wonder how they considered all of the workers as Maori when they conducted research on these “Maori Organizations”. I’m sure there was diversity in these corporations. To assume all workers belong to the same culture could have influenced some their research findings.

             I did like that they talked a lot about keeping in contact with the volunteers. They said that they had a lot of really enthusiastic volunteers who recorded a lot of information. The article mentioned that sometimes two people would record the same interaction. As a researcher I would have loved to see that and I would have encouraged it. I think an instance like that really is a great opportunity to look at data for a variety of factors. You could see how different perspectives interpret social interactions, what individual background does in interpreting language and interaction etc. I just thought that instances like that would be really great!

             Overall, the article explained the challenges that occurred in recording and analyzing interactions for New Zealand workplaces. Reading this article really made me think about what I would do if I was conducting a study and raised questions for me to find additional research. I believe that is an important characteristic among teachers. We should be interested in knowing our students and knowing what learning a language entails so we can help them. We need to continuously improve ourselves, ask questions and find information to start forming our own conclusions.

              Looking at social interactions between people from different cultural backgrounds is difficult. We don’t have clear answers and there are many things to explore in this area. As these researchers found, it is also difficult to analyze a group of culturally diverse participants if there is no prior research involving them and/or if you are unfamiliar with their culture. While the researches tried to learn about the culture they were studying from outside sources, they were aware that what they were learning could not compare to what is truly behind the culture.  I think that while the research originally set out to look at how cultural differences play a role in interaction in the work place they found something quite different. They found how really complex this topic is and how difficult it is to asses and how many factors need to be taken into consideration to appropriately collect data, analyze and come to conclusions. 

Blog Post 4: Cultural Differences

     This week’s articles focused on an ongoing debate in TESOL which looks at including culture in teaching ESL students. The first article I read was Kubota’s Unfinished Knowledge: The Story of Barbara. I really enjoyed how Kubota expressed his findings in this article through a fictional narrative. Kubota states his arguments very early on in this article. He mentions that teachers who use culture in teaching ESL students usually have good intentions by respecting their student’s cultural differences rather than denying them. I agree that some of these teachers adopt the liberal view of cultural differences and mistakenly create a barrier between their students and themselves. Kubota also states that to understand cultural differences critically we need to look at issues of power and discourse. Ultimately Kubota doesn’t have a clear answer or explanation on incorporating culture into teaching ESL students, but his article does allow us as readers and as future educators to explore the issue more in depth and lead us to creating our own explanations.

     I really enjoyed reading this article which tells the story of a college writing teacher’s first experience with ESL students and how she begins to look at multiple academic points of view and how her perceptive on cultural differences in the classroom changes over time. Barbara is the teacher who has her first students from culturally diverse backgrounds. In desperation she asks her colleague Carol who has background in TESOL to help her. Carol talks to Barbara about the importance of recognizing and respecting cultural differences which incorporate different social values, beliefs and customs. While Carol’s statements and the background information she shares about Korean, Japanese and Chinese culture are helpful- I believe Carol needed to be more careful in avoiding generalizing these students. Barbara did take their discussion as a learning experience and started doing her own research. Over time, Barbara began feeling comfortable with her culturally diverse ESL students and asked them questions about their linguistic and rhetorical conventions in their native language and how they different from those in English. While I don’t agree with Barbara’s focus on cultural differences I did like that she looked to her students for reinforcement. She asked her students for feedback but I would assume that her discussions of the lack of critical thinking or directness in Asian cultures might discourage some students from participating. Barbara needed to keep in mind that all students differ even within what she sees as their cultural identity. I did like that Barbara believed that no student should ever abandon their own culture however students may need to adopt certain cultural conventions to succeed in the academic community. This reminded me of our discussion on Ebonics. I believe that Ebonics could be very successfully incorporated in the classroom to help make learning relevant to students who use it. Unfortunately, I know that many teachers do see Ebonics as a misuse of the English language and don’t believe it has any place in the classroom. While it is understood that Standard English is important to be successful in our society, we shouldn’t ban the use of Ebonics in our classrooms. We can show students and encourage them to use Standard English in certain situations but to not allow students to use Ebonics could exclude students and discourage participation. We should never allow students to discard part of their cultural identity but we can teach our students what they need to be successful, whether we believe that is right or not.

When love interest David is added to the story he introduces the essentialist position and the constructionist view of culture. I thought how David explained these views to Barbara was very interesting and helpful for her as a teacher.  An essentialist views culture as a fixed category, as something that just “is”. A constructionist views culture as a creation of politics etc, something that we as a society creates. These two views see culture as something that just has characteristics, or as something we create by giving it these characteristics. This idea showed Barbara what she was missing in her teaching. While she believed there just “were” cultural characteristics, their discussion helped her explore the idea that we are defining cultures. She was then encouraged to look at readings that examined images of cultures and what the mean in relation to power between the West and non-West. She realized asking some of the questions she asked her students enforced polarized and fixed ways of viewing these cultures. She saw that she should not be endorsing cultural stereotypes and not promoting English and American culture as worth anything more than their native culture. While Barbara had been trying to incorporate student’s cultures into the classroom she was afraid she was doing more harm than good and after more research she was able to challenge these stereotypes and produce better discussions in her classroom. Have you ever felt that even though you were trying to be accepting of other cultures you were making assumptions about this group? How can you change your own thinking?

      The next article I read was Japanese culture constricted by discourses: implications of applied linguistics research and ELT. Like the first article this article also expands on the idea of drawing on cultural differences between ESL students and the target academic community. As Barbara did, these individuals tend to create a cultural dichotomy between the West and the non-West. Part of Kubota's article looked at Nihonjinron which are theories on the Japanese and assuming that Japanese people and culture have unique interpersonal relationships, group psychology social behaviors lifestyles, language use and business management and even biological brain functions (page 12). Kubota highlights recent studies of schooling in Japan which finds the opposite that instead Japanese education goes education goes beyond mechanical learning, lack of individualism and memorization.  While secondary education was said to focus more on memorization, creativity, original thinking and self-expression are still fostered. I believe these findings could be found in my own middle school here in the United States.  These studies and others challenge cultural representations in education of Japanese students. We as educators need to understand these labels and move beyond them.

     These two articles and Connor’s Changing currents in contrastive theoretic: implications for teaching and research were really helpful for me to read as I study TESOL. I know it is difficult in my own experience to avoid our own stereotypes. These three articles worked so closely together and really helped me consider the advantages and disadvantages of focusing on cultural differences. While teachers , may have good intentions they need to be careful to avoid making assumptions about their students.

Blog Post 3: Kuma

I believe the reading for this week really helped me reflect on what I want to do in my future work with TESOL. As the Kuma article states, TESOL is not free from cultural stereotypes. This statement made me think back to discussions I’ve had in some of my other classes.  As educators, our personal ideas and beliefs are incorporated into instruction whether it is intentional or not. We need to address our own preconceived notions, address them and do our best to not let any of our own misconceptions interfere with our job as teachers. Unfortunately, I believe there are many teachers in the United States who allow their own stereotypes reflect in their behavior towards their students.

The article goes on to discuss the stereotypes many students particularly from Asia face. These students are part of three billion people who belong to very different cultures includingChinese, Korean,Vietnamese and others. These cultures are all very different from one another but still all of these students are all classified as “Asian”. I have seen this in my own experience inside and outside of classrooms. Kuma continues to explore stereotypes of these students including obedience to authority, lack critical thinking skills and a lack of participation in class. Teachers need to understand that any student who fits these descriptions fit them as individuals, not because they are considered part of a group. There are a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration when looking at our students and their performance. Simply categorizing them into groups and insisting their behavior is a reflection of their roles in these groups is a “cop-out” and unfair to the child.  One interesting stereotype examined in the article was the idea that “Asian” students do not participate in class. While the article stated that this characteristic is unique to an individual I thought it was interesting that it also stated shyness is a commonly found characteristic among English Language Learners.  I can understand why speaking in classrooms especially for ELLs may cause extreme levels of anxiety. I know that I am very self-conscious about speaking in my second language in front of others especially native speakers. I know that I will take this into account when working in my own classroom. Ultimately there are many other factors that contribute to a student's identity besides their culture. I believe that all too often people struggle to look past what they see as another person’s cultural identity.  As TESOL educators we need to avoid stereotyping at all costs to protect our students.

Kuma Chapter Five began with a glimpse into a school from 1917. This school focused on teaching English as a second language to the immigrants that worked for Ford and to assimilate them into American cultural beliefs and practices. The description of the graduation ceremony shocked me. I thought the details were so off the wall I read the passage to a friend and asked him what he thought. He told me he thought the ceremony was elaborate. He also asked me if the point of this school was to “erase their history so they’re not immigrants anymore?”. In his response, the phrase“erasing a culture” stuck out to me. How can someone’s culture be erased? Does lowering yourself into a giant prop and changing into a business suit make you an American? Does graduating a school that prides itself on assimilating immigrants into the American culture make you an American? The ceremony seemed like a factory producing “Americans”- inserting immigrants, melting them down and producing cold, hard Americans each the same as the one before. It’s sad to think about these individuals needing to shed what made them unique and fill this American mold that the school was forced on them.

Later the article elaborated on this idea of a melting pot. It called this concept a myth that involved “individuals of all nations” melting into a “new race”. There is much more to this process including the selectivity of cultural assimilation, durability of ethnic affiliation and the responsibility of the mainstream community. Assimilation does not come easy and there are many factors that play a role into this idea. Overall, reading this article made me think about the importance of keeping a native culture alive. In one of my bilingual classes we discussed a case where a child was separated from his home life as he rejected his culture and native language. The child struggled to fit in at school and learn English. As a result he decided to separate himself from his family and background and eventually he was unable to communicate with his own parents. Reading this account last semester broke my heart, I could not imagine what it would be like like to feel like you need to give up such an important aspect of your life and what it would feel like to no longer have that connection to your home, history or family.

Another point I found interesting came from the book readings. The book discusses how we should understand people before we can communicate with them. I agree with this statement. I believe that there is more to communication than having a lexicon of vocabulary terms in a shared language. There has to be an understanding between the speakers.  Haven’t we all had times where communicating to an English speaker was difficult? The book also discussed the influence personal relationships and interactions have on our perspectives. A2.2 provided an example in which perspectives of other cultures were altered from personal relationships. I had never heard of a “middle culture before” but found this term very interesting in this reading. The middle culture is created when people from different backgrounds meet, to help them interact. How those people see each other is influenced by this middle culture. How this single interaction plays out can influence an idea of someone or a group forever. Interesting how we see stereotypes in our every day lives and while many of us accept these to be true, if we were to look at them in depth we'd find they are only social constructions.