Dialogic Approaches to TESOL: Chapter 1

            This week’s reading was very interesting to me in that it focuses on the political and social complexities for ESL and EFL learners. I really like that Wong started the chapter off with the realities and comparisons of schools and classrooms from one socio-economic status to another. This is a topic that we have not yet discussed nor really read about in our TESOL class, however, it is a very prominent and existent aspect for many English learners. By this I mean that many English learners who have immigrated to the US cannot afford to move into middle to upper-middle class neighborhoods, and are often stuck living in urban areas. Urban education is far behind suburban education, and urban education is often where ELL students find themselves. These schools lack proper resources, qualified teachers and involved communities. On page 2, Wong states some unfortunate and shocking statistics for every 100 Chicana/Latina students-- only less than half will graduate form high school, and only 6 will graduate from a four-year university. Numbers like these are a scream for help. These communities and students need help form their educators, and that help can come in forms of different methodologies.

            Further on in the chapter, Wong describes Clifford Prator’s approach to teaching in the form of three questions: What is known about the nature of the language? What is known about the nature of the learner? And, what are the aims of instruction? As a future educator, I believe that one of the most important traits a teacher must carry is flexibility and the ability to teach in a variety of different strategies. Furthermore, it is important that the student feels appreciated for his identity and culture. Prator’s last question, “What are the aims of instruction?” brings up valid points. “What is the fine line between helping our students become intelligible to other speakers of English and psychologically colonizing our students by insisting that their rendition of English match as much as possible British or “standard” American speech? At some level, accent is of a part of identity” (9). This is true, we need to focus on inclusion rather than adjustment.

            Finally after a brief history of the various approaches to teaching English, Wong points out Dialogic Pedogogy, which is according to the author is the newest methodology and reflects Prator’s question of, “ What is the nature of the learner/student?” There are four features to dialogic pedagogy:

1.     Learning in community: This refers to being immersed in the target language community, surrounded by multiple perspectives and opportunities for interaction.

2.     Problem posing: This focuses on exploration and the social nature of learning. “Students reflect on their learning strategies and draw from their own linguistic and cultural awareness as resources” (37).

3.     Learning by doing: Students learn the language through practice and communication.

4.     Knowledge for whom: Who is the student that is learning English? This questions the nature of the student and how can educational practices change inequalities within schools? 

LGG and Motivation

           I found the idea of a “good language learner” very interesting in that it examines whether somebody could be more likely to learn a language based on a variety of aspects such as personality characteristics, cognitive styles, attitudes, motivations, and past learning experiences.  I believe that yes, perhaps somebody can be assessed on these aspects, but can we necessarily label somebody good? And if there is a good, then shouldn’t there be a bad? In my opinion labeling can cause complexities as well as discourage somebody who doesn’t fit the idea of a gll. Never the less, there were many components of this study that I agreed with. According to “Changing Perspectives on Good Language Learners,” authors found that one of the most important aspects of whether somebody is a good language learner is their attitude and motivation. In my opinion motivation is key in language learning—one has to be willing to take chances and make mistakes, dedicate and commit time to learning and must be vulnerable. Lastly, I thought it was interesting that the article, “Social Identity Investment and Language Learning” distinguished two motivations; instrumental motivation which refers to the desire that language learners have to learn a second language for utilitarian purposes and integrative motivation which refers to the desire to learn a language to integrate successfully with the target language community. SLA learners have different purposes for learning and with different purposes come different motivations.

            The actual immigrant stories within these articles touched me since my parents and many of my family members are immigrants. As I was reading them, I was reminded of my mom, who still faces intimidation and embarrassment because her English isn’t perfect. She is a very outgoing individual, but might not seem so to somebody she just meets because her second language is still a struggle for her. Social identity is a big problem for l2 learners and it causes distractions and obstacles in their process of learning. Additionally, the ability of not being able to speak a target language not only disrupts social purposes, but even domestic purposes. In Martina’s case, her lack of English caused her to be dependant on her children, which in turn caused a disorder in her family dynamics. It was almost as if she had become the child, and her eldest daughter became the parent. It wasn’t until she had acquired some English, and was able to talk for her self is when she regained her caregiver role. 

Saville-Troike's Chapter 5

           Something that surprised me in this chapter was the gender differences among language learners. I have never thought of this idea before reading this, however I have experienced it. For Dad tends to use a lot more slang, and less formal English, while my Mom tries to speak very proper English. This is something I noticed, but have always associated with their personalities, however, perhaps it is a macrosocial factor.
           Unlike chapter four, which focused on the brain and the individual, this chapter put much emphasis on cultural aspects of L2 learning and interaction. I found this interesting because joining this class, I really wanted to expand my knowledge on SLA especially in a cultural sense. I was surprised with Kleifgen's study (106-107) when the teacher's modification of input had no significant change on the children, or there is no evidence I should say, but there was a significant evidence on the university students. This further questions age, and how much age contributes to somebody's ability to learn a language.

Saville-Troike's Chapter 4

             I found chapter four of Saville-Troike very interesting, in that it explores Language acquisition from a neurological perspective. It is most often that we hear about the actual methods of teaching, or the culture that we are exposed to when learning another language, but not too often do we focus on the brain, and what contributions it makes to the learning. It is interesting to note that L1 and L2 are stored and learned in different areas of the brain. Perhaps further research on the area that is most responsible for L2 could enhance learning methods and teaching strategies. Something that I especially found interesting was the research that indicates that different elements of language are located in separate parts of the brain (72). I was able to relate to this idea because I have a friend who can fully comprehend and understand Filipino or Tagalog, but cannot speak it. Actually, he can barely put a sentence together. I always found this to be very odd, and could not believe that he understands every bit of it without actually speaking the language. However, with these explanations of different areas of the brain controlling different parts of a language, I can now understand how his situation is not so unordinary.

             Aside from the insights on brain research and findings in L2 learners, I found the section on age interesting. There definitely are advantages and disadvantages with age, but from personal experience, it seems more common that somebody who studies another language at an older age ends up being able to retain more of the vocabulary and has a better sense of grammar. When I was in sixth grade, I took private Spanish lessons, however I retained almost none of the information because I was using memorization as opposed to comprehension. For example, I didn’t understand why I had to conjugate verbs. In high school, I once again took Spanish, but was a lot more successful at the comprehension part of it. I was old enough to understand why I had to conjugate my verbs, but I struggled with the comprehension of a subjunctive tense; but my freshmen year of college, I was able to understand the concept fully. Thus in my case, since I had started learning Spanish around the age of 11, the older I got, the more I was able to learn.