“Social Identity Investment, and language learning”, Bonny Norton
When I read this article, I found myself can’t stop reading through the whole article. No matter the story of Ivan ,Wong, or Mary, each of them reminds me of teaching English in my home country, Taiwan. Wong’s story interests me the most. Wong never talked to people at work because he was afraid that he would make mistakes. I have taught English in an English learning institution for two years. Most of the kids were tried to talk as more as possible when they came to the English learning institution. However, a boy, Shawn, never looked happy and enjoyed in the class. He never said a word or answered my question. He even lies on the desk when other kids come to talk to him in English. Finally, I know the main reason behind Shawn after talking to his parents. Shawn’s father works in China, comes back- and-forth between Taiwan and China every three months, and stays in Taiwan for about two weeks. Shawn has a younger sister who is smarter than him, no matter in learning English or Math. His mom always compared him with his younger sister in the family or in front of her relatives. That’s not the only embarrassment of a eight- year-old child’s mind but also deprived his interests in learning English. On the one hand, I have tried very hard to communicate with his parents about Shawn’s situation; on the other hand, I let him be the leader of each game we played and build his confidence in speaking English. I put all my effort to encourage him, applauded him when he said a complete sentence in English.
Gradually, Shawn has become more and more involved in the classroom before I resigned the job in the English institution in order to earn a Master’s degree in USA.
2009年9月20日 星期日
2009年9月13日 星期日
Blog response -week 2
In response to the Kuma, B. article, The Lay of the Land ,
I feel so touched because the author described the process of his personal experiences of being an American. From being a “labeled American” to a “naturalized” American citizen, he shared his experiences about how to incorporate Indian culture into his life in the USA.
What I considered as the key issue is that the way that the author raises his children. His children seem to feel comfortable with different cultures. They go to the elementary school to interact with Asian-Americans and White-Americans; at the same time, they go to the learning center to play with Indian children, hear Indian songs and stories on the weekend. So far so good. However, he knows things may change as his children grow up and find out who they really are. That is so called U-shaped cultural phenomenon. That reminds me of my country, Taiwan. Some of the parents bring their children to America while they are still young . Parents expect nothing but hope their children will speak and write fluently in English. However, during their teenage years, they know more, gain peer pressure, and start to change. Take one of my best friends, Albert Chou, for example. He grew up in this way and he survives. Now he is earning his JD degree in USA.
Questions that I have for the class to consider is how to help these kind of children if you are their homeroom teacher during their teenage period? How to help them with their struggle?
I feel so touched because the author described the process of his personal experiences of being an American. From being a “labeled American” to a “naturalized” American citizen, he shared his experiences about how to incorporate Indian culture into his life in the USA.
What I considered as the key issue is that the way that the author raises his children. His children seem to feel comfortable with different cultures. They go to the elementary school to interact with Asian-Americans and White-Americans; at the same time, they go to the learning center to play with Indian children, hear Indian songs and stories on the weekend. So far so good. However, he knows things may change as his children grow up and find out who they really are. That is so called U-shaped cultural phenomenon. That reminds me of my country, Taiwan. Some of the parents bring their children to America while they are still young . Parents expect nothing but hope their children will speak and write fluently in English. However, during their teenage years, they know more, gain peer pressure, and start to change. Take one of my best friends, Albert Chou, for example. He grew up in this way and he survives. Now he is earning his JD degree in USA.
Questions that I have for the class to consider is how to help these kind of children if you are their homeroom teacher during their teenage period? How to help them with their struggle?
2009年9月6日 星期日
Firth,A & Wagner: On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research.
After reading the “ The modern Language Journal “ , I found out myself trying to begin on page one and read through the last page. I felt guilty if I didn’t do so because I was afraid of that I’ll miss something important, so I read every section and try to understand it but there are still a lot of content I can’t really understand .
As an Asia student, the section “ Native and Nonnative Speakers” catches my attention most. From my point of view. Second Language Acquisition means the process during which a person learns another language except his/her mother tongue language. Take myself for example, I’ve been in the USA for a couple of weeks. In my country, I have worked with many native speakers and most of them came form America. I had no particular listening difficulty with my American co-workers in Taiwan. However, in these two weeks, I have difficulty understanding what people are saying. The main difficulty comes from the speaker’s accent and the other difficulty comes from my listening comprehension. Once I had problem with the native speaker’s accent , I had to say “pardon me ” and asked them to slow down . There are significant differences between listening to a native speaker and listening to a non-native speaker talking. There also exist more critical differences between native speakers of American and British English. Particularly for the listener’s backgrounds, such as limited vocabulary, poor English ability and not enough listening practice opportunity will cause more communication problems.
The question I have for the class to consider is how to help non-native speakers improve their English reading, speaking , and listening abilities in an effective way , especially getting used to English speakers with different accents.
As an Asia student, the section “ Native and Nonnative Speakers” catches my attention most. From my point of view. Second Language Acquisition means the process during which a person learns another language except his/her mother tongue language. Take myself for example, I’ve been in the USA for a couple of weeks. In my country, I have worked with many native speakers and most of them came form America. I had no particular listening difficulty with my American co-workers in Taiwan. However, in these two weeks, I have difficulty understanding what people are saying. The main difficulty comes from the speaker’s accent and the other difficulty comes from my listening comprehension. Once I had problem with the native speaker’s accent , I had to say “pardon me ” and asked them to slow down . There are significant differences between listening to a native speaker and listening to a non-native speaker talking. There also exist more critical differences between native speakers of American and British English. Particularly for the listener’s backgrounds, such as limited vocabulary, poor English ability and not enough listening practice opportunity will cause more communication problems.
The question I have for the class to consider is how to help non-native speakers improve their English reading, speaking , and listening abilities in an effective way , especially getting used to English speakers with different accents.
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