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.