I was impressed when reading this article. For one thing, Dolores, the teacher made use of all the languages spoken in her classroom to show the value of diversity in language and culture. Having students teach the class; giving some words in the primary language, or telling stories and jokes in the primary language not only teaches the students of all language groups other language skills, but it also exposes them to the variety of culture present in one classroom in which English is not the first language. And, Dolores strengthened this by having several helpers who spoke each of the languages in her class if they had problems. What impressed me the most about this article, was Dolores made clear to her students that she was also a second language learner, practicing her Spanish whenever she could. Classrooms, to me, should be more reflective of this. Especially in an ESL setting, they should reflect diversity and learning through an optimistic and comfortable environment. No matter if they are learning English as a second language, they should also be exposed to the languages of their classmates and the varying backgrounds they come from.
My girlfriend and several of my friends are from China, and when they came to the US as exchange students, they had to take ESL classes in a community college setting. One of the things they told me was that their ESL teacher seemed to be discriminant of the Chinese students in her classroom. For example, she didn't call on them in the classroom, and seemed to provide more help to the Spanish or other language speakers in the classroom. If we make use of the classroom as Dolores has done in this article, we can put things such as political association and racial biases behind us to not only create a classroom that is friendly, but more importantly, mindful and respectful towards everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment