Eng 345 Blog # 9

 Reading Blog: Cultural Awareness

The readings from this past week dealt with raising cultural awareness. As we have learned and talked about in the past, it is extremely important to be  aware and respectful of other peoples cultures. Being ESL teachers, there are for sure going to be students from diverse backgrounds that we need to take in to account for teaching. Not only to do we need to recognize and be sensitive in order to make students feel comfortable and welcomed in the classroom but we also need to pay attention to the differences of what is culturally acceptable in some cultures and what is not in comparison to ours. It is important to be aware of these factors in order for us to understand actions and behaviors of certain students and also to inform them and teach them the "norms" of the American culture. Due to the probability of having a class full of diverse learners, It would be smart to include lessons of each students culture so that the whole class can also learn and be aware of it too. Not only will it give the other students a better understanding, but it would make the students culture that's being presented feel proud and welcomed in a diverse setting.

Research Proposal Update

The topic that I had decided on from the two that we had discussed was, should the use of the learners L1 be used in the classrooms or should they be English only? Although we had talked about focusing more on one of the skills, reading, writing, speaking, or listening, in regards to a more narrower topic, I have chosen to take a different route. I would like to compare English Only classrooms with respect to reality vs. ideology. It can be very easy to have an idea and feel that that is the right way to go but sometimes we forget to put these ideologies in to play and pay attention to their outcomes in reality. Therefore, I think that this aspect would be very beneficial to research and discuss since this topic of interest is still so controversial.

Articles

 http://www.aare.edu.au/10pap/1755HoangJangYang.pdf - This article talks about the use of English -only classroom in a comparison of reality and ideology.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED467741&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED467741 - This article discusses the opinions and points of view from the classroom including the teachers and students. (reality)

http://www.azcentral.com/families/education/articles/0228ellprimer0228.html - This article discusses Arizona's English only program and also the effects of complications in regards to families trying to fit in,  teachers and language struggles, schools and their different directions, and lastly the state in regards to politics and money. (reality)