“Breaking Them Up, Taking Them Away”: ESL Students in First Grade

        The title of the article written by Kelleen Toohey accurately describes what I thought of the first grade observations made in the public school in Canada.  The author uses the term, legitimate peripheral participation by which learners move toward “full participation” as they engage in community practices over time.   The three main components of the author’s observations were the location of participants, the management of material, and the source of the intellectual resources needed to complete school tasks.  From the evidence given in the article, I do not believe these students met the “legitimate” peripheral participation.  

The first observation was the location of participants.  The teacher assigned each student to a desk where most L2 learners of English were seated next to a native L1 English speaker.  Most of the L2 learners of English were seated up front by the teacher.  I believe this seating arrangement went well throughout the year because students could engage in conversation with native English speakers.  The problem that I have is that the teacher did not allow the students to move around and speak to others.  This could be problematic because it as if the teacher is inexplicably saying that the L2 learners of English are not capable to speak to others, only to the teacher herself or to the person next to them.

The next observation that was collected was the aspect of “using your own things.”  Each student had to use their own things.  Borrowing and lending led to a little social interaction, some conflict, and physical movement in the classroom.  The problem was that some students were actively using the act of borrowing to sustain frequent interactions with one another.  I believe the act of borrowing can help with conversing with one another, but with the assigned placement of seats, how could students lend or borrow materials without getting out of their seats to ask their peers?  I believe the teacher put too much emphasis on the assigned seating and should adjust her ideas of “using your own things.”

Lastly, the author collected evidence of the source of the intellectual resources needed to complete school tasks.  The author states that from time to time the teacher organized the children in small groups.  In my opinion, the teacher should use an ample of scaffolding strategies such as, small groups, individual work, pairing, and choral.  In a classroom where more than half of the students are L2 English language learners, it is imperative that the students are engaged in the curriculum at all times.  In all, the teacher’s approach seemed to me a bit controlling.  She should probably re-think in the organization of her classroom.

Understanding Other Cultures

          In 2003, I walked into the corridors of Loyola Academy, a private Jesuit high school in a prestigious neighborhood; Wilmette, Illinois.  Looking around me, it seemed as if 90 percent of the population was White-Caucasian, 5% Black or Hispanic, and the other 5% were people of other nationalities.  I felt like an outcast being a dark skinned, middle eastern Christian, with dark brown hair and eyes.  I walked into my first class ever in high school and heard a few people talking.  They were talking about me.  I could hear someone whispering into another persons ear, “Hey, look, it’s Osama’s cousin.”  I felt like a no body.  

        Its 2011 now.  I look back on this occasion and laugh to myself.  A quote from Chapter 1 in the book, Dialogic Approaches to TESOL; Where the Ginkgo Tree Grows, states,  “Because English has become a worldwide language, many native speakers of English have never learned a second language, and this limits their understandings of other cultures” (12).  This quote clearly explains why the person in my class said such awful things about me.  It was obvious that “this” person had little to no understanding about other cultures and stereotyped me as “Osama’s cousin” because of my dark, middle eastern heritage.  

         Moreover, a solution to this problem is that learning a second language as an English native speaker may open many doors, such as enhancing the understanding of other cultures.  As a future language teacher, I hope to work in a dual-language classroom where native English speakers and native Spanish speakers can collaborate using scaffolding strategies to enhance both of their second languages.  Thus, creating a less stereotypical mindset.

Changing Perspectives on Good Language Learners

         In this week’s readings, I was especially interested in the identification of two good language learners and how they came about learning the language. The first person is Eva,a young Polish woman lived in a neighborhood in which little English was spoken.  Eva’s motivation to negotiate entry into the social networks in her workplace made her a good language learner.  On the other hand, Julie, a 5 year old Polish girl was identified as an ESL learner.  Julie showed success through her motivation and strategies that led to her success in language learning.  Both learners, Eva an adult and Julie a child, showed exceptional performance, and the question is how they both did so?  
Eva’s boss did not see it as his responsibility in the development of Eva’s communication skills, rather it was Eva’s responsibility to learn the language.  In Julie’s case, in contrast, the teacher saw it as her responsibility to help Julie and other ELL’s improve their English skills.  But, both learners set up counter discourses in which their identities could be respected and their resources valued, thereby enhancing the possibilities for shared conversation.    
According to this article and the information provided on these two language learners, it seems to me that researchers should spend less time focusing on language structures and focus on individual learners.  Moreover, by looking at social resources and the community that language learners live in will help in their research. In all, good language learning requires attention to social practices in the contexts in which individuals learn L2s.  

Chapter 5: Social contexts of Second Language Acquisition

         
           As I was reading through the chapter, these two terms really drew my attention.  Communicative competence is “what a speaker needs to know to communicate appropriately within a particular language community” (100).  And that language community refers to a group of people who share knowledge of a common language to at least some extent.   As I have said before, I am a Bilingual educator major and language community is a huge part of the acculturation process in immigrants coming from their home country to the US.  

Acculturation is the full participation of learning the culture of that community and adapting to those values and behavioral problems.  Although the notion of acculturation sounds amazing, it is not easy to do as an immigrant coming from the US.  The immigrant already has morals and values that they live by and then have to acculturate themselves to adapt to the values of the US and the culture of the community.  However, some immigrants find it difficult to acculturate and turn to assimilation.  Assimilating is basically, “trying to fit in to get by.”  Moreover, assimilation is not the key and that is where Bilingual education classes come into play.  On page 127, Saville-Troike differentiate between the types of bilingualism.  Additive bilingualism is where members of a dominant group learn the language of a subordinate group without threat to their L1 competence or to their ethnic identity.  The other is subtractive bilingualism, where members of a subordinate group learn the dominant language as L2 and are more likely to experience some less of ethnic identity and of their L1 skills.  The more additive bilingualism occurs in education, the more people will acculturate, rather than assimilate.